Breast mri effectiveness? is a mri the most effective breast imaging test?

Breast : Breast MRI is an amazing technology that is very effective at detecting and characterizing breast lesions. In a general screening population, the sensitivity of mammography at detecting breast cancer ranges from 45% to 90% (translation - in 100 women with breast cancer, mammography will detect between 45 to 90 cancers). Studies evaluating the sensitivity of breast MRI detecting breast cancer report between 70% to 100% sensitivity. However, similar to mammography, false positive reports of cancer are not uncommon. Breast MRI is also extremely expensive compared to mammography. Currently, breast MRI is generally only recommended in patients with certain risk factors or for evaluation of previously identified breast masses. A study published in the new england journal of medicine comparing the sensitivity of tumor detection in women with an inherited susceptibility to breast cancer demonstrated that the sensitivity of breast MRI was 80% versus 33% for mammography.

Breast imaging: Not necessarily, it all depends what you are trying to evaluate. It is a good test to look for implant rupture. It can be an additional test to a mammogram for evaluation of a mass. So it all depends but is not the end all be all test for breasts.

Yes and no.: It is the most sensitive breast imaging study (detects the greatest number of lesions) but is not the most specific (a lot of these lesions are not malignant and some will need to be biopsied to prove that they are not malignant.) it is only recommended that a woman obtain a breast MRI if she is at high risk of breast cancer (strong family history, etc). Talk with your doctor about it.

It depends: on what you mean by effective. It is the most sensitive imaging test for detecting cancers, meaning that it will detect more cancers than mammo or ultrasound. It will also detect more lesions that turn out to be benign on biopsy, so the specificity is not optimal. It is also expensive, time consuming, and not always available, so it is not an optimal screening test except for high risk patients