Journal: Journal of breast imaging
This review article describes how breast MRI has progressed into a central tool in breast imaging and examines how protocol design is changing in response to new technologies and operational pressures.
Key points:
- Traditional backbone: Dynamic contrast-enhanced (DCE) MRI remains the core of breast MRI for distinguishing benign from malignant lesions, with supplementary sequences historically added to improve diagnostic performance.
- Newer techniques:
- • Diffusion-weighted imaging (DWI)
- • Ultrafast DCE-MRI
- • Deep learning-based approaches
These have expanded the diagnostic and functional capabilities of breast MRI but also increased heterogeneity in how examinations are performed across institutions.
- Practical challenges: Indications for both screening and diagnostic breast MRI are broadening, driving higher patient volumes. Imaging centers must reconcile:
- • Efficiency and throughput
- • Diagnostic accuracy and comprehensiveness
- • Constraints in time, staffing, and scanner availability
- Focus of the review:
- • Defines and discusses key components of contemporary breast MRI protocols.
- • Highlights strategies to optimize protocols (e.g., tailoring sequence selection and acquisition times to clinical indication and resource constraints).
- • Explores emerging technologies and trends expected to influence the next generation of breast MRI, including more advanced functional imaging and AI-assisted methods.
Overall, the article is a practical, forward-looking framework for standardizing and optimizing breast MRI in an era of rapidly evolving technology and rising demand.