MRI and CAD -- A Marriage of Acronyms With Mixed Results

Background: Computer-aided detection (CAD) software has been developed to assist radiologists in the determination of breast MRI. The software tends to focus on visual displays of kinetic information by providing color mapping based on the pattern of enhancement. Objective: To evaluate the diagnostic accuracy of experienced and novice radiologists in the interpretation of MRI with and without CAD software. Methods: A total of 70 breast MRI cases were chosen to comprise a case series; 27 of the cases were known to have a benign outcome and 43 were known to have a malignant outcome. Twenty radiologists participated as readers and 9 of those readers had previously interpreted ≥100 MRI cases and were therefore considered "experienced" readers for the purposes of this study. For each case, the reader was tasked with determining the presence or absence of an abnormality and the likelihood of malignancy. Each reader completed 2 reading sessions separated by 6 months. Each session consist more...