Evaluation of clinical physical examination, ultrasonography and mammography in the diagnosis of breast cancer in Chinese / 解放军医学杂志

ABSTRACT

Objective To evaluate the significance of clinical physical examination, breast ultrasonography, and mammography in the diagnosis of breast cancer in Chinese, to compare their sensitivity, specificity and accuracy, and to elucidate the significance of combined application of the 3 methods. Methods A total of 112 patients suspected to have breast cancer as a result of mass screening (38 cases) and OPD examination (74 cases), were subjected to clinical physical examination, breast ultrasonography and mammography, and biopsy specimens were obtained from all the cases by puncture or surgery, then the final diagnosis was confirmed by pathological examination. The diagnosis made from clinical physical examination, breast ultrasonography or mammography was compared with pathological findings, and the sensitivity, specificity, accuracy, positive predictive value, and Kappa index of the 3 methods were then calculated. Results 61 cases of breast cancer and 51 cases of benign breast disease were identified. The diagnostic sensitivity of clinical physical examination, ultrasonography and mammography was respectively 68.85%, 88.52% and 72.13%, the specificity was respectively 88.23%, 21.57% and 56.86%, while the accuracy was respectively 77.68%, 58.04% and 65.18%. The combined use of ultrasonography and mammography yielded the highest sensitivity of 98.36% (P