Metastatic foci to the breast from a wide variety of primary malignancies appear on mammograms as circumscribed spheroid shadows with only slightly irregular margins, and without evidence of microcalcifications, spiculations, or other signs of desmoplastic response that characterize many primary scirrhous carcinomas. In the cases studied, there was close correlation between the size of the metastatic lesion at palpation and mammography, a feature also characteristic of the well-circumscribed carcinomas. This is not the case with most scirrhous breast carcinomas, whose associated desmoplastic reaction results in an apparent larger size by palpation than observed on mammography.

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Both retrospective and blinded analyses of thin-section, high-resolution magnetic resonance (MR) images of the knee joint, produced using a solenoid surface coil, indicate that MR imaging is an effective technique for evaluating meniscal injuries. Images of 49 patients were evaluated, and the results were correlated with those of subsequent arthroscopy. A grading scale was developed to rate the index of suspicion of a meniscal tear based on the MR images. Overall, approximately 80% of menisci rated grade 4 (definite tear) or 3 (probable tear) were found to have corresponding tears at arthroscopy. In many other patients with a grade 4 or 3 meniscus in whom a corresponding tear was not found arthroscopically, meniscal tears at other sites or other abnormalities were correctly diagnosed using MR. A majority of the false-positive MR images involved the posterior horns of the menisci, the sites of most false-negative arthroscopic diagnoses. The predictive value of a negative MR image was almost 100%. Even in patients with moderate-to-large effusions, the menisci were accurately evaluated. The results imply that MR imaging is useful in the preoperative evaluation of suspected meniscal tears.

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