Mammography of symptomatic breasts. A report on 1119 consecutive patients

Two-picture mammography was performed as a routine diagnostic measure in the evaluation of 1119 consecutive patients (97.9% of which were women), who attended the hospital with breast symptoms 67.8% also had fine needle aspiration biopsy. The sensitivity of mammography in diagnosing the 97 carcinomas was 91.8%, the specificity was 95.6%. The false negative findings on mammography constituted 8.2% of the 97 carcinomas, aspiration biopsy was falsely negative in 25.7% of 70 carcinomas. Mammography was found to be valuable in distinguishing malignant from benign lesions with a high degree of accuracy, in localizing both palpable and occult lesions prior to aspiration or open biopsy, as well as in demonstrating the entire symptomatic breast and also the other breast for diagnosis. Of all the women 23.6% were under 30 years of age, but in this group only one carcinoma was found. It is suggested that mammography should not be performed in women with breast symptoms under 30, unless ther is suspicion of malignancy. Mammography of both breast should, on the other hand, be performed in all those over 30 years.