ABSTRACT
Objective To investigate the potential diagnosis value of tumor signal enhancement rate (SER)combined with long-to-short axis ratio of breast lumps in axillary lymph node metastasis in patients with breast cancer by using dynamic contrast-enhanced MRI (DCE-MRI).Methods patients with primary breast cancers were enrolled in the study,MR examinations were performed before surgeries.SER features and long-to-short axis ratio of breast lumps were obtained.Receiver operating characteristic curves (ROC) were plotted to assess the diagnostic performance.Results When MR SER ≥180.5% and long-to-short axis ratio of breast lumps ≤0.56,the diagnostic performance of the combination in terms of AUC was the highest (AUC=0.826),in comparison with that of MR SER or long-to-short axis ratio of breast lumps alone.The associated sensitivity and specificity were 93.8% (60/64)and 88.7% (47/53),respectively.Conclusion The combination of MR SER and long-to-short axis ratio of breast lumps can further improve the ability to identify lymph node metastasis in patients with breast cancer in DCE-MRI,and provide a reference basis for clinical therapy and prognosis.