ABSTRACT
184 patients presenting with breast lumps were assessed, after clinical examination, using mammography. The mammographic diagnosis was then compared to the final pathological diagnosis obtained by biopsy. Out of the 90 cases diagnosed as benign by mammography, 15 were found to have malignant breast disease while 12 of the 94 cases diagnosed as malignant had benign lesions. The accuracy of mammography in diagnosis benign breast lumps was 83%, sensitivity 86%, and specificity 84% while in malignant lesions the figures were 87%, 84% and 86% respectively. It is concluded that while mammography might provide useful information to help clinical diagnosis, it is never a substitute for a proper tissue diagnosis. A patient with a breast lump needs a pathological diagnosis, the place of mammography in such cases is more of an academic interest