Can magnetic resonance imaging texture analysis change the breast imaging reporting and data system category of breast lesions?

PURPOSE: This study aimed to reveal magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) texture analysis (TA)'s contribution to categorizing breast lesions according to the Breast Imaging-Reporting and Data System (BI-RADS) lexicon. METHOD: Two hundred and seventeen women with BI-RADS category 3, 4, and 5 lesions on breast MRI were included in the study. For TA, the region of interest was drawn manually to encompass the entire lesion on the fat-suppressed T2W and the first post-contrast T1W images. To identify the independent predictors of breast cancer, multivariate logistic regression analyses were performed using texture parameters. Estimated benign and malignant groups were formed according to the TA regression model. RESULTS: Texture parameters extracted from T2WI, including median, gray-level co-occurrence matrix (GLCM) contrast, GLCM correlation, GLCM joint entropy, GLCM sum entropy, and GLCM sum of squares, and parameters extracted from T1WI, including maximum, GLCM contrast, GLCM joint entropy, GLCM sum entropy, were independent predictors of breast cancer. In the estimated new groups according to the TA regression model, 19 (91%) of the benign 4a lesions were downgraded to BI-RADS category 3. CONCLUSIONS: The addition of quantitative parameters obtained by MRI TA to BI-RADS criteria significantly increased the accuracy rate in differentiating benign and malignant breast lesions. When categorizing BI-RADS 4a lesions, the use of MRI TA in addition to conventional imaging findings may reduce unnecessary biopsy rates.