Introduction Magnetic resonance imaging is highly sensitive for detecting breast lesions in general. However, the speci city for malignant tissue is relatively low. The differentiation of malignant from benign breast lesion in contrast-enhanced MRI is determined by tumor morphology and kinetic analysis of dynamic studies. Breast proton magnetic resonance spectroscopy Showa Univ J Med Sci 22 4 Abstract : 1 H-MR spectroscopy MRS of the breast demonstrated that choline could be detected in breast

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... ancers. The purpose of this study was to evaluate the detectability of the choline peak Tcho in breast cancer using a 3.0T imager. A total of 52 female patients who underwent MR imaging were evaluated. Localization methods included the SVS and PRESS, with acquisition times of approximately 5 minutes. Correlations among tumor size, histological type, and the presence of Tcho were evaluated. Of 52 breast lesions that were pathologically diagnosed, 50 were malignant 45 invasive ductal carcinomas IDC , ve ductal carcinomas in situ DCIS and 2 were benign. The presence of Tcho was evaluated in 50 cases. The average diameter of malignant tumors was 2.2 cm and that of benign tumors was 1.9 cm. Tcho was identified in 24 of 48 breast cancers sensitivity 50 , specificity 100 . There was a signi cant difference between the identi cation in tumors according to tumor size. Tcho was identi ed in 76.9 of IDC cases with a diameter greater than the voxel size 1.5 cm , while it was identi ed in only 17.6 of tumors less than 1.5 cm in size. Tcho was identi ed in approximately 77 of breast cancer tumors overall with a diameter greater than the voxel size. The result was comparable with the detectability at 1.5T, although the acquisition times at 3.0T were much shorter than at 1.5T. The advantages at 3.0T include the ability to investigate smaller lesions within a shorter time frame.