Evaluation of the usefulness of quadruple test in preoperative diagnosis of indeterminate breast masses

ABSTRACT

It is always a challenge to the physician to diagnose clinically the nature of a breast mass; especially with the increasing desire among patients to avoid surgery just for accurate diagnosis. Clinical examination of the breast, mammography, ultrasound supported by FNAC, provide a high level of diagnostic accuracy. This study included 45 female patients with 50 indeterminate breast lumps [40 patients had single lesion and 5 patients had 2 synchronous lesions]. The sensitivity and specificity of the individual tests were as follows 87.5% and 53.84%, respectively for physical examination, 95.83% and 84.61% for FNAC, 83.3% and 92.3% for mammography, 91.66% and 88.46% for ultrsonography. The quadruple test was 100% sensitive and 100% specific when all the tests were positive or negative, and 100% sensitive and 46.15% specific when at least one test is positive. To conclude, the quadruple test is reliable and very helpful to the surgeon and the patient in determining nature of palpable breast mass