Comparing the diagnostic efficacy of digital breast tomosynthesis with full-field digital mammography using BI-RADS scoring

Abstract

BackgroundMammography has been the mainstay for the detection of breast cancer over decades. It has gradually advanced from screen film to full-field digital mammography. Tomosynthesis has evolved as advanced imaging for early diagnosis of breast lesions with a promising role in both diagnostic and screening settings, particularly in dense and treated breasts.ResultsThis study included 90 female patients according to our inclusion criteria. All patients perform full-field digital mammography (FFDM) and digital breast tomosynthesis (DBT) and were classified according to breast density and age groups. Breast imaging reporting and data system (BI-RADS) scoring was assigned for each case. This was correlated with the final diagnosis; the diagnostic indices of mammography were a sensitivity of 64.44%, a specificity of 77.78%, a positive predictive value (PPV) 74.63%, a negative predictive value (NPV) of 68.63%, and a diagnostic accuracy of 71.11%. Diagnostic indices of DBT were a sensitivity of 100%, a specificity of 97.77%, PPV 97.78%, NPV 100%, and diagnostic accuracy of 97.7%.In patients with dense breasts American College of Radiology (ACR) (c and d), 61% of cases had changed their BIRADS scoring with the addition of tomosynthesis. Yet, in non-dense breast ACR (a and b), 45% of cases had changed BIRADS scoring with the addition of DBT to FFDM.ConclusionDBT is a promising imaging modality offering better detection and characterization of different breast abnormalities, especially in young females, and those with dense breasts with an increase of sensitivity and specificity than FFDM. This leads to a reduction in the recalled cases, negative biopsies, and assessing the efficacy of therapy as it enables improving detection of breast cancer and different breast lesions not visualized by conventional mammography