Abstract
Background: This study aimed to evaluate the diagnostic performance of the Kaiser score (KS) on the modified abbreviated breast magnetic resonance imaging (AB-MRI) protocol for characterizing breast lesions by comparing it with full-protocol MRI (FP-MRI), using the histological data as the reference standard. Methods: Breast MRIs detecting histologically verified contrast-enhancing breast lesions were evaluated retrospectively. A modified AB-MRI protocol was created from the standard FP-MRI, which comprised axial fat-suppressed T2-weighted imaging (T2WI), pre-contrast T1-weighted imaging (T1WI), and first, second, and fourth post-contrast phases. Two radiologists reviewed both protocols, recording the KS for each detected lesion. Sensitivity, specificity, and positive and negative predictive values, as well as accuracy, were calculated for each protocol. Receiver operating characteristic (ROC) analysis was performed to determine the diagnostic performance of the modified AB-MRI compared to the FP-MRI. Results: In total, 154 patients with 158 histopathologically proven lesions (107 malignant, 51 benign) were included. For the diagnostic performance of the KS for modified AB-MRI and FP-MRI, the sensitivity was 96.3% vs. 98.1%, the specificity was 78.4% vs. 74.5%, PPV was 90.4% vs. 89%, NPV was 90.9% vs. 95%, and the diagnostic accuracy was 90.5% vs. 90.5%. The area under the curve (AUC) obtained from the ROC curve analysis was 0.873 and 0.863 for modified AB-MRI and FP-MRI for reader 1, respectively, and 0.859 and 0.878 for modified AB-MRI and FP-MRI for reader 2, respectively, (p < 0.001). Conclusions: Our modified AB-MRI protocol revealed comparable results in terms of the diagnostic value of the KS in characterizing breast lesions compared to FP-MRI and reduced both scanning and interpretation time.