Breast MRI BI-RADS 3: Impact of Patient-Level Factors on Compliance With Short-Term Follow-Up

Purpose: A BI-RADS 3 assessment on breast MRI is given when a finding is estimated to have less than 2% chance of breast cancer. Patients in this category are typically recommended to return for a 6-month follow-up MRI. Compliance with this recommendation is low, and we aim to understand which factors are associated with compliance. Materials and Methods: All patients with an MRI examination given a BI-RADS category 3 between February 1, 2011, and June 30, 2016, were retrospectively reviewed. Patient demographics and breast-related medical history were extracted from the electronic medical record. Patients presenting for follow-up MRI between 3 and 10 months were considered compliant. Univariate and multivariate analysis was performed to identify which patient-level factors were associated with compliance with follow-up MRI. Results: Overall, 190 women with a BI-RADS 3 assessment on MRI were included in the study. Of these women, 106 were compliant with the recommended follow-up MRI (57.3%), 34 had delayed follow-up (18.4%), and 45 were noncompliant (24.3%). Reason for examination, personal history of breast cancer, and family history of breast cancer were significantly associated with compliance. Conclusions: We found that 75.7% of patients had a follow-up MRI after a BI-RADS 3 assessment, but only 57.3% were timely in their follow-up. Our data suggest that there may be subsets of patients who would benefit from additional support and resources to help increase overall compliance and timely compliance.