Purpose
Supplementary mammographic views have been an important part of the assessment process in women recalled following an abnormal screening mammogram. They are performed in addition to the standard mediolateral oblique and craniocaudal views to confirm the presence and characterize a true breast lesion rather than a pseudoabnormality simulated by summation of normal breast tissue. Traditionally, the spot view (SV) has been one of the most commonly used supplementary mammographic view in the assessment of abnormalities detected on a screening mammogram. With the incorporation of digital...
Methods and materials
This retrospective study included 62 female patients with a mammographically detected noncalcified abnormality. Digital breast tomosynthesis and the SV were performed in all patients and breast ultrasound was performed in 44 patients.All breast imaging findings were evaluated by a radiologist with 10 years of experience in breast imaging. Findings were classified according to Breast imaging-reporting and data system (BI-RADS) classification having categories 3-5 positive and 1-2 negative. The final diagnosis was established based on histopathological results when a tissue specimen was available; otherwise, a clinical...
Results
The mean age of the patients was 59 years (range, 41 - 85 years). The final histopathological analysis revealed six malignant breast lesions, four of which were presented as a mass and two as an architectural distortion. There was no significant difference between digital breast tomosynthesis and SV in mass characterization, and both digital breast tomosynthesis and SV showed high sensitivity and negative predictive value (NPV) for the detection of breast carcinoma. Nevertheless, SV showed greater overall specificity in comparison to digital breast tomosynthesis (84%...
Conclusion
Our results have shown that SV underperforms breast ultrasound within the standard diagnostic algorithm in case of a BI-RADS 3-5 assessment observed on SV. Nevertheless, in the case of a BI-RADS 1-2 assessment, SV may reduce the need for breast ultrasound. Furthermore, as SV resulted in better diagnostic performance than digital breast tomosynthesis on our dataset, it can be considered as an option in a case digital breast tomosynthesis is not available. Also, we would like to emphasize that we are aware that the results...
Personal information and conflict of interest
L. Kovačević:
Nothing to disclose
S. Barsic Ostojic:
Nothing to disclose
M. Prutki:
Nothing to disclose
References
Gao Y, Babb JS, Toth HK, Moy L, Heller SL. Digital Breast Tomosynthesis Practice Patterns Following 2011 FDA Approval: A Survey of Breast Imaging Radiologists. Acad Radiol. 2017 Aug;24(8):947-953. doi: 10.1016/j.acra.2016.12.011. Epub 2017 Feb 7. PMID: 28188043.
Cornford EJ, Turnbull AE, James JJ, Tsang R, Akram T, Burrell HC, Hamilton LJ, Tennant SL, Bagnall MJ, Puri S, Ball GR, Chen Y, Jones V. Accuracy of GE digital breast tomosynthesis vs supplementary mammographic views for diagnosis of screen-detected soft-tissue breast lesions. Br J Radiol. 2016;89(1058):20150735. doi:...