In Vivo 3d Single/triple Quantum Sodium Mri of the Human Breast

PROBLEM Breast cancer is the most common form of cancer among woman. Although there is not known cure to breast cancer, it is generally well accepted that early detection is crucial for improved therapeutic outcome. While mammography has shown to be an effective means of breast cancer detection, it is not 100% accurate, and it averages a 90% detection rate of breast cancer in women without symptoms. Contrast enhanced MRI has proven to be very sensitive, but it is non-specific [1]. Clearly, a non-invasive technique that could be used to improve the characterization of breast neoplasms could prove very useful for the diagnosis and staging of breast cancers. Because of its important role in cell physiology, the sodium ion is sensitive to the metabolic changes that accompany many tissue pathologies. In particular, it has been shown that the intracellular concentration of sodium has a positive correlation with proliferative activity in a variety of human neoplasms [2]. In this work we demonstrate the feasibility of performing single and triple quantum sodium MRI in the breast in vivo. We demonstrate that images of adequate SNR and spatial resolution can be obtained in acceptable imaging times using clinical 3.0T MRI scanners.