Can breast surgeons read mammograms of symptomatic patients in the one-stop breast clinic?

摘要

AIM: To establish how accurate surgeons were when compared to the radiologists in interpreting symptomatic mammograms in one-stop clinics. METHODS: The surgeons were asked to write their opinion on the mammograms which was compared with the radiologists' report. 144 patients were involved in the study and the data were analysed by McNemara's test for paired categorical data. RESULTS AND CONCLUSIONS: Surgeons were accurate in interpreting most of the mammographic findings. However, they underestimated the presence of benign calcification which was statistically significant. Surgeons can, therefore, be involved in double reading of mammograms in symptomatic breast disease patients and improve the sensitivity which has been the case in double reading by radiologists in the breast screening programme.