MRI-Guided Breast Biopsy

A MRI-guid­ed breast biop­sy is used to take tiny sam­ples of your breast tis­sue that can be stud­ied under a micro­scope. Dur­ing this pro­ce­dure, an MRI machine is used to locate the tis­sue to be removed. This biop­sy may pre­vent the need for an open (sur­gi­cal) biopsy.

Prepar­ing for a MRI-Guid­ed Breast Biopsy

When sched­ul­ing your pro­ce­dure, you will be asked a num­ber of ques­tions by the sched­uler per­tain­ing to:

• Any­thing that may or could be implant­ed in your body
• Any surg­eries that you may have had previously
• If you are diabetic
• If you have had any aller­gic reac­tions to med­ica­tions or med­ical imag­ing contrasts
• The pos­si­bil­i­ty of pregnancy
• The date of your last men­stru­al cycle

These are all impor­tant ques­tions that help screen you for any­thing that could be poten­tial­ly con­traindica­tive to putting you into the strong mag­net­ic field that is used in per­form­ing your MRI exam. The infor­ma­tion you give the sched­uler is kept con­fi­den­tial and becomes a part of your med­ical record. Even though you may have answered these ques­tions pri­or to your Diag­nos­tic Breast MRI, due to the strong mag­net­ic field being used, for your safe­ty, they will be asked again.

Once you have been sched­uled, the radi­ol­o­gist will review your Diag­nos­tic Breast MRI and the reports from any recent Ultra­sounds and/​or biop­sies to deter­mine the site loca­tion for the MR Guid­ed Biopsy.

The MRI appoint­ment time will require about 90 min­utes and requires the injec­tion of a con­trast mate­r­i­al through an IV in an arm. You will be instruct­ed to hydrate your­self by drink­ing plen­ty of flu­ids the day of your exam. You will also be instruct­ed to keep your­self well hydrat­ed after your exam has been com­plet­ed in order to flush the inject­ed con­trast mate­r­i­al com­plete­ly out of your sys­tem as it trav­els from your blood­stream into your kid­neys and then exits col­or­less­ly through your urine.

After you arrive:

• You will be asked to review the screen­ing ques­tions asked dur­ing the sched­ul­ing process to make sure all answers are marked accurately
• You will also be asked to fill out a cou­ple of addi­tion­al forms that give both the tech­nol­o­gist per­form­ing the exam as well as the radi­ol­o­gist read­ing your exam spe­cif­ic details about you and your med­ical history.
• An MR tech­nol­o­gist will explain the pro­ce­dure in detail and answer any ques­tions pri­or to begin­ning the procedure.
• You will be asked to undress and will be giv­en a gown to wear with instruc­tions to put it on so that it opens in the front.
• You will also be asked to remove any oth­er cloth­ing that has met­al such as snaps or zip­pers as well as jew­el­ry and hair clips or pins, so it is rec­om­mend­ed that you wear com­fort­able clothing.
• An IV will be start­ed in your arm through which con­trast will be inject­ed at the appro­pri­ate time.

Once the exam is com­plet­ed and the IV removed from your arm, you will have a non-com­pres­sion mam­mo­gram and then be able to get dressed and go home.