Brief Review of the Development of Magnetic Resonance Mammography

Abstract

Four principal stages can be recognized in the development of MRM:

• 1 The first MR images using wholebody magnets and an ordinary body coil (without a special surface coil) did not achieve diagnostic importance due to a poor S/N ratio (Mansfield et al. 1979; Ross et al. 1982; El Yousef et al. 1982, 1984).

• 2 Following the development of a breast coil (Axel 1984; Fritschy et al. 1984), T1- and T2-weighted spin-echo sequences were employed for MRI (Kaiser 1984; Stelling et al. 1985; Heywang et al. 1985, 1986; Kaiser et al. 1985, 1986a, 1986b; Dash et al. 1986; Friedrich et al. 1987). The MR criteria of breast lesions (carcinoma, fibroadenoma, cysts, scars, etc.) were identified and utilized for differential diagnosis.

• 3 The introduction of Gd-DTPA increased the information content of MR images, analogous to the use of iodinated contrast media in CT. The marked enhancement of carcinomas with Gd-DTPA served to distinguish them from scars (Heywang et al. 1986; Kaiser et al. 1987).

• 4 Since 1986, breast diagnosis by MRI has been further advanced by the use of gradient-echo sequences (e.g., FLASH, FISP), especially when combined with Gd-DTPA signal enhancement (Kaiser et al. 1987, 1988, 1989; Heywang et al. 1989).