title: The American College of Radiology's mammography lexicon: barking up the wrong tree?
abstract: Mammography reports are often wordy and inconclusive. To solve this problem, the American College of Radiology (ACR) created the Breast Imaging Reporting and Data System (BI-RADS) with a lexicon of specifically defined words, designed to be used, exclusive of any other terminology, to describe all significant breast imaging findings. The premise for developing BI-RADS was that strict verbal uniformity is a prerequisite for a national mammography data base and will also result in concise, directive reporting. Although this approach seems reasonable at first glance, BI-RADS, in my opinion, has several fundamental flaws.
authors.affiliation: Imaging Associates, Inc., Seattle, WA 98104.
authors.forename: K S
authors.initials: KS
authors.lastname: Heilbrunn
mesh_terms: D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008327:Mammography; D012955:Societies, Medical; D009626:Terminology as Topic