"Dial of a Clock" Search Pattern for Clinical Breast Examination.

Area of Science:

• Oncology
• Radiology
• Medical Diagnostics

Background:

• Clinical breast examination (CBE) is crucial for symptomatic breast disease assessment.
• Four common CBE search patterns include dial of a clock (DC), vertical strips (VS), quadrant-wise (QW), and concentric circles (CC).
• The optimal CBE search pattern for sensitivity remains undetermined.

Purpose of the Study:

• To evaluate and compare the diagnostic performance of four CBE search patterns.
• To determine the most sensitive CBE search pattern for symptomatic breast disease.

Main Methods:

• A cross-sectional study involving 60 women with symptomatic breast disease.
• Three examiners (professor, resident, nurse) assessed women using four randomized CBE patterns.
• Findings were compared against breast sonography as the gold standard.

Main Results:

• The "dial of a clock" (DC) pattern consistently showed the highest sensitivity across all examiners.
• Sensitivity for DC ranged from 64.2% (resident) to 82.1% (nurse).
• The trained nurse examiner achieved the highest overall sensitivity.

Conclusions:

• The "dial of a clock" (DC) search pattern is the most sensitive for clinical breast examination.
• Healthcare professionals, particularly trained nurses, can enhance diagnostic accuracy with the DC pattern.