Influence of co-registration on lesion characterization in diffusion-weighted breast MRI

Brock L, Liebert A, Schreiter H, Skwierawska D, Ehring C, Eberle J, Heidarikahkesh S, Laun FB, Uder M, Kapsner L, Lach J, Wenkel E, Ohlmeyer S, Hadler D, Knoll F, Bickelhaupt S (2026)

Publication Type: Journal article

Publication year: 2026

Journal

Magnetic Resonance Materials in Physics Biology and Medicine Springer Verlag (Germany)

DOI: 10.1007/s10334-026-01324-z

Abstract

Objective: To evaluate if co-registering Diffusion-Weighted Imaging (DWI) before generating Apparent Diffusion Coefficient (ADC) maps can improve differentiating benign and malignant breast lesions in MRI based on the A6702 thresholds. Materials and methods: This IRB-approved study involved an in-house dataset and the publicly available ACRIN-6698 dataset, both including multi b-value DWI. In phase one, 16 ANTs library-based co-registration methods were evaluated on a subset of n = 138 cases from our in-house cohort. The quantitative assessment included mean ADC values of manually segmented lesions (diagnostic metrics using individual and A6702-defined thresholds) and coefficient of Variation. In the second phase, the best-performing methods were tested for generalizability on an unseen set of 40 cases (20 from in-house and 20 from external dataset). Three blinded readers segmented lesions on co-registered and non-co-registered ADC maps. Agreement and consistency were evaluated via Bland–Altman, segmentation distance, and intraclass correlation coefficient. Results: Rigid co-registration using DWI at b = 750 s/mm2 as reference (b750-Rigid) improved accuracy of both optimal/conservative A6702 trial thresholds with sensitivity/specificity increasing from 93%/10% to 97%/30% and 100%/30% respectively. Mean ADC values were not significantly different after co-registration (p > 0.05). Discussion: Co-registration of DWI images before ADC map generation, particularly using b750-Rigid registration, seems promising for improving lesion classification in breast MRI. Further validation is warranted.

Authors with CRIS profile

Luise Brock Professur für Computational Imaging Andrzej Liebert Institute of Radiology Hannes Schreiter Institute of Radiology Dominika Skwierawska Professur für quantitative MR-Bildgebung Jessica Eberle Institute of Radiology Shirin Heidarikahkesh Institute of Radiology Frederik Bernd Laun Professur für quantitative MR-Bildgebung Michael Uder Lehrstuhl für Diagnostische Radiologie Lorenz Kapsner Institute of Radiology Judith Lach Institute of Radiology Sabine Ohlmeyer Institute of Radiology Dominique Hadler Institute of Radiology Florian Knoll Professur für Computational Imaging Sebastian Bickelhaupt Institute of Radiology

Involved external institutions

Radiologie München GbR DE Germany (DE)

How to cite

APA:

Brock, L., Liebert, A., Schreiter, H., Skwierawska, D., Ehring, C., Eberle, J.,... Bickelhaupt, S. (2026). Influence of co-registration on lesion characterization in diffusion-weighted breast MRI. Magnetic Resonance Materials in Physics Biology and Medicine. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10334-026-01324-z

MLA:

Brock, Luise, et al. "Influence of co-registration on lesion characterization in diffusion-weighted breast MRI." Magnetic Resonance Materials in Physics Biology and Medicine (2026).

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