[Sensitivity and specificity of stereotaxic core biopsy in the diagnosis of non palpable lesions of the breast].
BACKGROUND
Recently the stereotaxic core biopsy has been proposed as an alternative method for the initial evaluation of non palpable breast lesions. The authors verify the accuracy of core biopsy in diagnosis and discuss the applicability of tests used for nominal variables, like sensibility and specificity, to evaluate grading of quality such as benign, borderline and malignant.


METHODS
Among 700 stereotaxic core biopsies of the breast the authors selected the first 567 cases, examined from May, 1993 to May, 1996 to check the accuracy of the histopathologic diagnosis. These cases were followed-up for a minimum of six months and a maximum of thirty months. For the evaluation, the diagnosis by core biopsies was compared with the findings of the surgical resection specimens for the malignant and atypical hyperplasia cases, and mammographic/clinical examinations for the cases not submitted to surgery.


RESULTS
The sensibility and specificity were respectively 90.72% e 98.36% and the Spearman correlation test was 0.92.


CONCLUSIONS
The stereotaxic core biopsy is an accurate method for the evaluation of breast non-palpable lesions. These results are similar to others in the literature.
de Abreu-e-Lima
M C
MC
Departamento de Patologia, Centro de Ciências da Saúde-Universidade Federal de Pernambuco (DP-CCS-UFPE), Recife.
Maranhão
N
N
Costa
I
I
Abreu-e-Lima
M
M
Abreu-e-Lima
P
P
de Carvalho
A R
AR
D001707:Biopsy, Needle / Q000379:methods*; D001940:Breast / Q000473:pathology*; D001941:Breast Diseases / Q000473:pathology*; D001943:Breast Neoplasms / Q000473:pathology; D005260:Female; D005500:Follow-Up Studies; D006801:Humans; D012680:Sensitivity and Specificity; D013238:Stereotaxic Techniques