Background To investigate the relationship between mono-exponential diffusion- weighted imaging (DWI) parameters and time-intensity curve (TIC) characteristics generated from dynamic contrast-enhanced (DCE) MRI of breast cancer. Materials and Methods A total of 108 patients with breast cancer were prospectively enrolled in this study. All patients underwent DWI and DCE-MRI examination. Patients were divided into untypical TIC and untypical TIC groups; untypical TIC pattern was defined as a wash-in/plateau curve, and the typical TIC pattern of breast cancer as a wash-out curve. The relationships between DWI parameters and semi-quantitative TIC characteristics were investigated by using multivariate logistic regression analysis. Results The BI-RADS grade and the incidence of lymph node metastasis were higher in the typical TIC group (all P < 0.05). The ADC mean and ADC min values were lower in the typical TIC group than in the untypical TIC group (all P < 0.05). There was a significantly negative correlation between ADC mean or ADC min value and SI slope2 (r=-0.535,-0.514; P = 0.02, 0.04). According to logistic regression analysis, micro-vessel density (MVD), tumor stroma ratio (TSR), ADC min , histological grading, and ADC mean were independently correlated with TIC patterns. Conclusion The water diffusion restriction reflected by DWI parameters may contribute to the TIC characteristics at the late phase after enhancement, which provides theoretical guidance for the diagnosis of breast cancer based on a combination of DWI and TIC characteristics.
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Li et al. (2022) studied this question.