Diagnostic Accuracy of Digital Mammography in the Detection of Breast Cancer.

Muhammad Zeeshan,Qazi Saad B Khalid,Shahbaz Alam,Basit Salam,Raza Sayani

doi:10.7759/cureus.2448

Abstract

IntroductionBreast cancer has a high prevalence in the community and places very high demands on resources. Digital mammography provides a good quality image with reduced radiation dose and can detect breast carcinoma in its earlier stages, resulting in good prognosis and improved patient survival.ObjectiveTo calculate the diagnostic accuracy of digital mammography in the detection of breast cancer, using histopathology as a gold standard in women aged over 30 years, who are undergoing mammography for screening and diagnostic purposes.Materials and methodsThis was a cross-sectional analytical study, conducted in the department of radiology, for a total duration of 10 months. A total of 122 patients of age above 30 years, referred for digital mammography for the evaluation of different symptoms related to breast diseases, followed by biopsy/surgery and histopathology, were included in the study.ResultOur data confirmed that digital mammography is a highly accurate tool for breast cancer detection having a sensitivity of 97%, a specificity of 64.5%, a positive predictive value of 89%, and a negative predictive value of 90.9%, with a diagnostic accuracy of 89.3%.ConclusionConsidering our results, we recommend that digital mammography should replace screen-film mammography as a basic tool to detect breast cancer for both screening and diagnostic purposes.

Highlights

MethodsThis was a cross-sectional analytical study, conducted in the department of radiology, for a total duration of 10 months
Breast cancer has a high prevalence in the community and places very high demands on resources
Our data confirmed that digital mammography is a highly accurate tool for breast cancer detection having a sensitivity of 97%, a specificity of 64.5%, a positive predictive value of 89%, and a negative predictive value of 90.9%, with a diagnostic accuracy of 89.3%

Summary

Methods

This was a cross-sectional analytical study, conducted in the department of radiology, for a total duration of 10 months. A total of 122 patients of age above 30 years, referred for digital mammography for the evaluation of different symptoms related to breast diseases, followed by biopsy/surgery and histopathology, were included in the study. Received 03/28/2018 Review began 03/30/2018 Review ended 04/05/2018 Published 04/08/2018. The reported sensitivity of a digital mammogram to detect breast cancer is 85% and the reported specificity is 90% [11]. The prevalence of breast cancer is 20% (one in five female patients). The desired precision is 12%, so 121 patients were the required sample.

Results

Discussion

Conclusion