Comparison of woman-specific versus breast-specific data for reporting screening mammography performance.
OBJECTIVE
Screening mammography data can be reported on a breast-specific or woman-specific level, and much mammography data available for research is woman-specific. The purpose of this study was to determine if woman-specific screening mammography data are sufficient for research and reporting by measuring and comparing the accuracy of screening mammography on a breast-specific and on a woman-specific level.


METHODS
Definitions for true-positive and false-positive mammography results were developed to distinguish between breast-specific and woman-specific calculations. The sensitivity, specificity, and positive predictive values of screening mammography were calculated on a breast-specific and on a woman-specific basis for the entire population of the Carolina Mammography Registry and for a randomly selected subset of the population.


RESULTS
Only small differences were found in breast-specific versus woman-specific calculations of sensitivity, specificity, and positive predictive values for both the entire population and the smaller subset population. For both populations, woman-specific sensitivity and positive predictive values were slightly higher than the same breast-specific values, and woman-specific specificity was slightly lower.


CONCLUSIONS
For research and reporting, woman-specific data are sufficient.
Heinzen
M T
MT
Department of Radiology, University of North Carolina School of Medicine, Chapel Hill 27599-7515, USA.
Yankaskas
B C
BC
Kwok
R K
RK
D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D001706:Biopsy; D001941:Breast Diseases / Q000000981:diagnostic imaging* / Q000473:pathology; D001943:Breast Neoplasms / Q000000981:diagnostic imaging / Q000473:pathology; D002285:Carcinoma, Intraductal, Noninfiltrating / Q000000981:diagnostic imaging / Q000473:pathology; D003937:Diagnosis, Differential; D003951:Diagnostic Errors; D005189:False Positive Reactions; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008327:Mammography / Q000592:standards / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D008875:Middle Aged; D011237:Predictive Value of Tests; D012042:Registries / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D015203:Reproducibility of Results; D012680:Sensitivity and Specificity