To evaluate the potential value of ¹H Magnetic resonance spectroscopy (MRS) for detecting and characterizing invasive ductal carcinoma of breast. We conducted ¹H Magnetic resonance spectroscopy (MRS), using a 3.0T MR scanner, on 40 patients who were histologically diagnosed to have invasive ductal carcinoma (IDC); tumor areas of the patients were designated as experimental samples, and non-tumor areas as control samples. The peak at 3.2 ppm is characteristically intense and observed in 34 cases of the total 40 invasive ductal carcinoma (sensitivity 86.2%; specificity 100%; positive predictive value 100%; negative predictive value 60%). In constrast peak at 1.3 ppm is characteristically intense and observed in normal breast (sensitivity 86.2%; specificity 100%; positive predictive value 100%; negative predictive value 60%). The study shows that ¹H MRS can effectively discriminate invasive ductal carcinoma from normal breast in most cases. It also demonstrates the feasibility of localized in vivo ¹H MRS technique as a new diagnostic modality in the detection of breast tumor.

KeywordsBreast invasive ductal carcinoma, ¹H MRS (magnetic resonance spectroscopy)