2009 Volume 18 Issue 2 Pages 176-181
From January 2005 to October 2007, 53 women were diagnosed as ductal carcinoma in situ (DCIS) from our program. We examined the sensitivity of mammography (MMG) and ultrasonography (US) using individual initial report written independently on the same day. Category 3 or higher judgement was considered as a true positive.
The sensitivities of MMG and US were 71.7% (38/53) and 81.1% (43/53), respectively, and the difference was not statistically significant. When the results were analyzed in terms of patient age, women who were 49 or younger had a MMG sensitivity of 75.0% (21/28) and a US sensitivity of 82.1% (23/28), whereas women who were 50 or older had a MMG sensitivity of 68.0% (17/25) and a US sensitivity of 80% (20/25), none of these differences being statistically significant. Thus US was proved to have a DCIS detection rate similar to that of MMG.
Among the 53 patients with proven DCIS, 29 (54.7%) presented positive findings on both MMG and US, 9 (17.0%) only on MMG, and 14 (26.4%) only on US. Five of the 14 US-positive patients showed punctate high echoes, suggesting the usefulness of US for detection of calcification. In 52 (98%) of the patients, either MMG, US, or both gave positive results for detection of DCIS. Therefore we conclude that MMG and US compensate each other for breast cancer screening.
