Data From BREAST-DIAGNOSIS

The Breast-Diagnosis collection contains cases that are high-risk normals, DCIS, fibroids and lobular carcinomas. Each case has 3 or more distinct MR pulse sequences from a Phillips 1.5 T (usual sequences are labeled T2, STIR and BLISS but may occasionally include other pulse sequences and digital mammogram of tumor specimen). Multiple time point studies on the same patient are possible. The following is relevant to analyzing the contrast dynamics of the BLISS pulse sequences. The pulse sequence parameters (repetition, echo time, etc.) can be extracted from the DICOM tags. The contrast aspects are as follows: The volume of Magnevist (Bayer) gadolinium contrast injected into the brachial vein is based on a rule of thumb which in ml's is 10% of the patient wright in POUNDS (NOT Kilograms as is recorded in the DICOM patient weight tag. Hence the injected volume for a 150 lb patient is 15 ml. (the DICOM tag entry on that patient will read "68"). The injection itself is 6 or 7 seconds, at a rate of 3cc per second. The first dynamic sequence is started 1 minute after the injection is started. Slice and pulse parameters are accessible in the DICOM tags.