Abnormal findings in breast imaging: a hospital-based survey in 4264 Thai women.

OBJECTIVE: To evaluate the distributions of common and significant imaging findings from breast imagings at King Chulalongkorn Memorial Hospitals. MATERIAL AND METHOD: Data was collected from every mammography performed from November 1, 2001 to October 31, 2002. The reports were analyzed and imaging findings were recorded. The ACR BI-RADS category was applied to all cases. RESULTS: There were 4264 patients and all of them were female. The age range was between 19-90 years and average age was 50.1 years. The most common positive findings were cysts (39.22%), followed by focal lesions (14.76%), mass (8.69%), architectural distortion (7.83%), calcification (7.36%) and thick ducts (3.76%). According to ACR BI-RADS, most of the studies were in category 2 (42.59%), followed by category 1 (38.67%), category 3 (12.08%) category 5 (3.45%), category 4 (3.12%) and category 0 (0.09%). CONCLUSION: Breast imaging is the standard screening tool for breast cancer and can reveal different kinds of findings. Knowing the distribution of these findings helps both the radiologists to understand the scope of their work and the institution to audit their practice.