Background: Triple assessment is the standard method of assessing symptomatic breast lumps. There is an accepted format for reporting cytology but not for the reporting of mammograms or breast ultrasonographic images. This study describes a scoring system for reporting breast imaging methods.
Methods: Patients with symptomatic breast lumps seen during 1 year were included. All patients underwent triple assessment. Imaging studies were reported using a grading system from 1 to 5. The results of triple assessment were compared with the final histology.
Results: Some 127 women had both mammography and ultrasonographic imaging; the final grade was identical in 60 per cent. The positive predictive value of imaging reported as grade 5 or 4 combined with cytology of C5 or C4 was 100 per cent. All lesions with C3 cytology and benign imaging were benign on histological examination whereas if a C3 grade was combined with imaging grade 5 or 4, all the lesions were malignant.
Conclusion: Combining the imaging grade with the results of aspiration cytology and clinical examination often predicts the final histology in patients with breast disease.