Medical audit of diagnostic mammographic examination at the lagos university teaching hospital (luth), Nigeria.
OBJECTIVE
We studied the performance of diagnostic mammography in predicting malignancy among patients presenting with signs and symptoms of malignancy.


METHODS
310 patients who presented to the surgical out-patients of the Lagos University Teaching Hospital with signs and symptoms of breast cancer, between January 2002 and December 2003 had mammographic evaluation with a dedicated mammography unit. The mammographic appearances were prospectively classified using the BI-RADS assessment categorisation, and histological confirmation following surgical excision was correlated with mammography.


RESULTS
The overall sensitivity of mammography in the study was 82.8% (CI 78.6 - 87%) while specificity, Positive predictive value (PPV) and accuracy were 90.7% (CI 87.5-93.9%), 69.97% (CI 46.6 - 74.8%), and 89% (CI 85.5-92.5%) respectively. Multivariate analysis showed that sensitivity and specificity generally declined as breast density increased.


CONCLUSIONS
Diagnostic mammography is useful in characterising breast lesions. This study analyses the performance of mammography and shows that the resultant specificity is high, however it may have to be used in conjunction with needle biopsy to achieve improve sensitivity and avoid unnecessary benign surgical biopsies.
Adeyomoye
A A O
AA
Department of Radiation Biology, Radiotherapy, and Radiodiagnosis, College of Medicine of the University of Lagos e-mail: kunleadeyomoye@yahoo.com.
Awosanya
G O G
GO
Adesanya
A A
AA
Anunobi
C C
CC
Osibogun
A
A
D001943:Breast Neoplasms; D006784:Hospitals, Teaching; D006801:Humans; D008327:Mammography; D008485:Medical Audit; D009549:Nigeria; D014495:Universities