ABSTRACT
@#The purpose of this research was to identify which category of breast density had higher possibility led to missed breast cancer and incorrect diagnosis. Ethics approval was granted by the Instituitional Research Ethics Committee. A total of 495 mammographic cases were chosen from the Radiology Department, University Kebangsaan Malaysia Medical Centre. All the mammographic cases were grouped into four groups which is true negative, true positive, false positive and false negative. Next, the mammograms were classified according to breast density categories (BI-RADS (a, b, c and d). Logistic regression was used to estimate the odds ratios of a false-positive and false-negative mammograms being associated with each category of breast density. Women with breast density BI-RADS d were four times more likely to have a false-positive mammogram than women with breast density BI-RADS a (odd ratio [OR], 4.27; 95% CI,0.88- 20.67). While women with breast density BI-RADS b and BI-RADS c were almost two times more likely (odd ratio [OR], 1.59, 1.32; 95% CI, 0.29-8.77, 0.25-7.01) to have a false-negative mammogram than women with fatty breast tissue (BI-RADS a). Mammographic image with breast density BI-RADS d has higher possibility to be falsely diagnosed, while mammographic image with breast density BI-RADS b and c have high possibility to miss the cancer. Thus, radiologist should be more cautious when interpreting mammograms with breast density BI-RADS b, c and d, so that the number of missed cancer and falsely diagnosis can be reduced at very early stage. Early detection of breast cancer can increase patients’ survival rate.