Usefulness of mammography and ultrasound in dense fibroglandular tissue for breast cancer screening

Abstract

Introduction: Mammography is the method of choice for diagnosing breast cancer; however, its performance in breasts with dense tissues decreases. The present study aimed to establish the value of mammography and ultrasound for breast cancer screening in women with dense glandular tissues.

Methodology: A cross-sectional study was carried out, which included, for convenience, 97 consecutive cases of women with dense glandular tissue on mammography, to which a complementary ultrasound study was performed, attended between 01-01-2017 and 12-31-2019 in the Imaging service. Teodoro Maldonado Carbo Hospital. Those who had a study of breast lesions by biopsy and pathology were included. For method analysis, sensitivity, specificity, positive and negative predictive values, positive and negative likelihood ratios, and the percentage of tests correctly performed were calculated.

Results: The prevalence of breast cancer in the sample was 95%. For the mammographic BI-RADS, the diagnostic yield was DC 12.37%, S 7.61%, E 98.13%, PPV 98.68%, NPV 5.56%, CPP NV, and CPN 0.92. For the ultrasound BI-RADS, it was DC 43.30%, S 41.30%, E 80%, PPV 97.44, NPV 6.90%, CPP 2.07, and CPN 0.73. The sonographer's criteria were DC 86.60%, S 91.30%, E 8.00%, PPV 94.38, NPV 5.56%, CPP 0.91, and CPN NV.

Conclusion: Mammography had poor performance. In ultrasound, the use of BIRADS improves performance. The criterion issued by an experienced sonographer achieves the best performance for diagnosing breast malignancy in women with dense fibroglandular tissue.