A breast MRI technique that analyzes sodium concentrations could potentially reduce false positives and minimize the need for invasive biopsies.
That conclusion comes from researchers at Brigham Young University and the University of Utah in a study published online September 16 in Magnetic Resonance in Medicine.
Electrical engineer and senior author Neal Bangerter, PhD, and colleagues evaluated sodium MRI with the goal of enhancing the process and accuracy of breast cancer screening. Their new device is providing images that are five times as accurate as previous efforts, according to the researchers.
"The images we're obtaining show a substantial improvement over anything that we've seen using this particular MRI technique for breast cancer imaging," Bangerter said in a statement.
Sodium MRI has the potential to improve assessment of breast lesions because sodium concentrations are thought to be higher in malignant tumors. So far, the technique used by Bangerter and colleagues creates images in approximately 20 minutes.
