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http://www.advancedimagingpro.com/publication/article.jsp?pubId=1&id=3307

Enhanced Breast MRI

Researchers from Florida Atlantic University, the Center for Breast Care at the Womens Center at Boca Raton Community Hospital (Boca Raton, Fla.), and MeVis, The Center for Diagnostic Systems and Visualization at the University of Breman, Germany, have developed new techniques to aid clinicians in the diagnosis and treatment of breast cancer. The FDA-approved techniques involve a unique software platform using the mathematical concept of fractals for the analysis and display of serial-time MRI, and were developed at MeVis under the direction of Dr. Heinz-Otto Peitgen who is also a faculty member in the Department of Mathematical Sciences at FAU.

Fractals are large, irregular geometric patterns made up of infinitely smaller, but identical, irregular patterns, said Peitgen. Fractal theory provided an appropriate platform upon which to build the software program because the ducts within human breast tissue have fractal properties.

Breast MRI is a relatively new tool used by physicians to diagnose breast cancer as an adjunct to conventional mammography. Breast MRI displays the behavior of a cancerous lesion in three dimensions and approaches a nearly 100 percent accuracy rate in the detection of invasive cancer. In contrast, mammography provides a two-dimensional view of the breast and surrounding tissue and only detects 80 to 85 percent of tumors. One of the main strengths of MRI is its precise delineation of soft tissue and its ability to image the breast in fine sections dynamically by taking multiple MRI images over time. The percentage of medical centers doing breast MRI is small, but growing.