Objective: The aim of this study was to correlate the apparent diffusion coefficient (ADC) value of breast cancer with prognostic factors. Methods: 335 patients with invasive ductal carcinoma not otherwise specified (IDC NOS) and ductal carcinoma in situ (DCIS) who underwent breast MRI with diffusionweighted imaging were included in this study. ADC of breast cancer was calculated using two b factors (0 and 1000 s mm -2 ). Mean ADCs of IDC NOS and DCIS were compared and evaluated. Among cases of IDC NOS, mean ADCs were compared with lymph node status, size and immunochemical prognostic factors using Student's t-test. ADC was also correlated with histological grade using the Kruskal-Wallis test. Results: Mean ADC of IDC NOS was significantly lower than that of DCIS (p,0.001). However, the mean ADC of histological grade of IDC NOS was not significantly different (p50.564). Mean ADC of oestrogen receptor (ER)-positive or progesterone receptor (PR)-positive cancer was significantly lower than that of ER-negative or PRnegative cancer (p50.003 vs p50.032). Mean ADC of Ki-67 index-positive cancer was significantly lower than that of Ki-67 index-negative cancer (p50.028). Mean ADC values of cancers with increased microvascular density (MVD) were significantly lower than those of cancer with no MVD increase (p50.009). No correlations were observed between mean ADC value and human growth factor receptor 2 expression, tumour size and lymph node metastasis. Conclusion: Low ADC value was correlated with positive expression of ER, PR, increased Ki-67 index, and increased MVD of breast cancer. Breast MRI is an established supplemental technique to mammography and ultrasonography for evaluation of suspicious breast lesions. Diffusion-weighted MRI (DWI) has recently been integrated into the standard breast MRI for discrimination of benign and malignant breast lesions obtained with dynamic contrast-enhanced MRI [1][2][3][4][5][6][7][8][9][10][11][12][13]. DWI is a non-invasive technique that represents the biological character of the mainly Brownian movement of protons in bulk water molecules in vivo. Apparent diffusion coefficient (ADC) values are quantified by measurement of mean diffusivity along three orthogonal directions, which are affected by cellularity of the tissue, fluid viscosity, membrane permeability and blood flow [7,[9][10][11]. Microstructural characteristics, including water diffusion and blood microcirculations in capillary networks, were associated with ADC value. Decreased movement of molecules in highly cellular tissue showed correlation with a low ADC value [3,4]. Several studies of DWI of the breast have reported significantly lower ADC values in malignant tumours, compared with benign breast lesions and normal tissue [1-3, 5-11, 14]. Classic prognostic markers, including tumour size and grade, and lymph node status in patients with breast cancer, and molecular markers, including oestrogen receptor (ER), progesterone receptor (PR), Ki-67 index, human growth factor receptor 2 (HER2) protein and angiogenic mo...

Infantile AD has many distinctive features in its laboratory variables as compared with AD in other age groups. Clinicians should recognize these facts when they deal with infants with AD, and further studies are warranted on the natural course of infantile AD.

Objective: To propose a new and practical MRI grading method for cervical neural foraminal stenosis and to evaluate its reproducibility. Methods:We evaluated 50 patients (37 males and 13 females, mean age 49 years) who visited our institution and underwent oblique sagittal MRI of the cervical spine. A total of 300 foramina and corresponding nerve roots in 50 patients were qualitatively analysed from C4-5 to C6-7. We assessed the grade of cervical foraminal stenosis at the maximal narrowing point according to the new grading system based on T 2 weighted oblique sagittal images. The incidence of each of the neural foraminal stenosis grades according to the cervical level was analysed by x 2 tests. Intra-and interobserver agreements between two radiologists were analysed using kappa statistics. Kappa value interpretations were poor (k,0.1), slight (0.1#k#0.2), fair (0.2,k#0.4), moderate (0.4,k#0.6), substantial (0.6,k#0.8) and almost perfect (0.8,k#1.0).Results: Significant stenoses (Grades 2 and 3) were rarely found at the C4-5 level. The incidence of Grade 3 at the C5-6 level was higher than that at other levels, a difference that was statistically significant. The overall intraobserver agreement according to the cervical level was almost perfect. The agreement at each level was almost perfect, except for only substantial agreement at the right C6-7 by Reader 2. No statistically significant differences were seen according to the cervical level.Overall kappa values of interobserver agreement according to the cervical level were almost perfect. In addition, the agreement of each level was almost perfect. Overall intra-and interobserver agreement for the presence of foraminal stenosis (Grade 0 vs Grades 1, 2 and 3) and for significant stenosis (Grades 0 and 1 vs Grades 2 and 3) showed similar results and