In this Monday morning scientific session, Dr. Linda Moy and colleagues will discuss findings from a study they conducted with 17 women using T1-weighted fat-suppressed breast MRI at 7 tesla. The group used 3-tesla images in the same patients as a baseline reference.
Two radiologists qualitatively graded the images on a five-point scale and quantitatively assessed them for fibroglandular/fat contrast and signal uniformity. Moy's group found that in standard resolution images the quality scores at 7 tesla and 3 tesla were similar (4.3 versus 4.1, respectively). But 7-tesla MRI had a better signal-to-noise ratio than 3-tesla MRI in high-resolution images (4.2 versus 3.1, respectively), which allowed clinicians to see ligaments and dendritic patterns more clearly.
Clinicians could make use of this improved signal-to-noise ratio for high-resolution imaging to improve fibroglandular tissue detail and classification of lesions, the researchers concluded.
