MRIs may mean fewer breast biopsies

MADISON, Wis., July 6 (UPI) -- Improving magnetic resonance imaging techniques could help eliminate some biopsies, a U.S, engineer says.

Biomedical engineer Walter Block of the University of Wisconsin-Madison is part of a team seeking to improve data-acquisition for the MRI scan so radiologists can visually identify a cancerous lesion based on characteristics of its shape.

The MRI image is made up of thousands of smaller pieces of information, Block says. The conventional data-acquisition method gathers that information slowly, and it's designed to be viewed from a single imaging plane.

"What people do now is they compromise," Block said in a statement. "They don't get resolution in the other planes to make it a reasonable scan time. We found a way around that."

Techniques that acquire more data in less time help generate a high-resolution, three-dimensional image that radiologists can turn, slice and view from many perspectives -- allowing a lesion's physical characteristics to be more carefully studied.

For example, breaks or interruptions in a lesion can indicate a benign fibroadenoma. Lumps with smooth edges often are benign, while those with jagged edges can signal cancer, Block says.