[Radiologic types in mammography in the 90-s. New classification]

The Authors present a critical review of the classification of radiological types in mammography proposed in 1986. On the basis of their personal experience over the past years, and in the light of the changed indications given by screening the asymptomatic population, a series of 6,072 mammographies performed over a 12-month period were included in the study. These were non-selected cases undergoing X-ray examination for a variety of reasons, ranging from periodical control to carcinophobia. No clinical or epidemiological data were taken into account in order to limit analysis to radiological factors alone. The analysis of results allows a few comments to be made and suggests an interpretation which differs from that in vogue in the 80s. First of all, the steady rise in mammographic controls calls for an uniformity of technique with interchanges of information between the various centres of breast cancer in order to encourage increasingly accurate diagnostic evaluations. The higher incidence of the trabecular type (33.7%), typical of women in their 40s, underlines the greater diffusion of mammography which now starts at an increasingly early age. Current control programmes (in spite of some recent controversy) include 40-year-old women who undergo basic mammography in spite of the absence of symptoms. On the other hand, the irreplaceable diagnostic value of mammography during the asymptomatic years is now widely recognised, even in those women who undergo a regular clinical examination. The fibroadipose type has dropped to second place (26.8%) not due to a reduction in the number of these cases, but rather on account of the lower age at which women first undergo mammography.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)