[Diagnostic effectiveness of mammography in various age groups]

The diagnostic efficacy of 935 mammographies from the mammology service for self-referred symptomatic women was assessed for the period of 1975-1988. Breast cancer was detected in 200 women. The paper is concerned with the distribution of true- or false-positive and true- or false-negative mammographic diagnoses in the age groups of women under 40, 40 to 49 and over 49. The sensitivity of mammography in these age groups was 87.5, 72.4 and 89%, the specificity was 83.5, 76.4 and 83%, and the positive predictive values were 42, 38.2 and 69.5%, respectively.