Pre-operative Localisation of Non-palpable Mammary Lesions

Overview

Summary:
Pre-operative Localisation of Non-palpable Mammary Lesions. Wide expansion of mammography, especially the introduction of screening mammography, has markedly increased the number of mammographically detected mammary gland lesions, the majority of them are not palpable. Only a small percentage of lesions can be identified as being unambiguously benign (pathognomic lesions) and therefore the majority of lesions require the use of other investigative modalities, including cytological and/or histological verification. An efficient technique in the group of these lesions is biopsy under mammographic/sonographic control. Pre-operative localisation techniques under MG/US control are necessary in non-palpable lesions, in mammography including the localisation of microcalcification clusters [1,2,4]. Specimen radiography is an integral part of localisation of non-palpable lesions and is a necessary part of the quality control of the entire diagnostic procedure [3,5,8,13].

We present the results of the analysis of 27 406 mammographic examinations performed in the period of September 2002 to September 6, 2005. Out of this total number, 57,29 % (15 701) screening mammographies were performed. In total, 414 mammary gland carcinomas were mammographically detected and subsequently histologically verified. 243 mammary gland carcinomas (58,7 %) in the screening group, 72 carcinomas (17,4 %) in the group under 45 years of age and 99 mammary gland carcinomas (23,9 %) in the group over 70 years of age were identified. Stereotactic mammographic localisation was performed in 57,5 % from the total number of malign mammographic findings. 

Keywords:
mammography – sonography - percutaneous diagnostic techniques - mammary gland carcinoma – biopsy – screening examination