Diaphanography in benign breast disorders. Correlation with clinical examination, mammography, cytology and histology

Histologically classified benign breast disorder was present in 163 breast of 158 symptomatic women. The results of diaphanography (DPG) were correlated with those obtained by clinical examination (CE), mammography (M) and cytology (C). A tumour was palpable in 108 cases (66.3%). A false positive diagnosis, i.e. possibly malignant, probably malignant or malignant was made in 15 cases (9.2%) with DPG, and in 33 cases (20.2%) with M. Use of both M and DPG reduced the number of false positives to 1.8 per cent. In 8 cases (4.9%) false positive diagnosis was made with C. During a mean observation time of 58.5 months (range 44-72 months, one case of breast carcinoma was diagnosed.