UC San Diego

Magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) is used for preoperative evaluation, high-risk screening, and other select indications for breast cancer. However, the interpretation of breast MR images in pregnant and lactating women is complicated by physiologic changes of the breast that may result in marked background enhancement. Breast MRI with contrast administration is contraindicated in pregnancy. Restriction spectrum imaging (RSI) is an advanced diffusion-weighted (DW)-MRI method that theoretically reflects signal from cells with high nuclear-to-cytoplasm ratio without gadolinium-based contrast. This report describes a case in which RSI notably increased tumor conspicuity in a lactating woman, compared to contrast-enhanced (CE)-MRI and conventional DW-MRI.