Abstract
BACKGROUND:
One of the most prevalent presentations in outpatient clinics is a breast lump. A palpable mass in a woman's breast could be benign or cancerous, and it needs to be evaluated very well. The triple evaluation approach, which combines clinical examination, radiological imaging, and fine needle aspiration cytology, was used to diagnose the nature of a breast mass. The gold standard for confirming a diagnosis is still an open biopsy.
OBJECTIVE:
To evaluate the role of the triple assessment (a combination of clinical examination, ultrasonic examination, and Fine needle aspiration cytology) in the diagnosis of breast lumps and its correlation with histopathological diagnosis.
MATERIALS AND METHODS:
A Cross-sectional study including 60 females patients was collected from Al-Karama Teaching hospital and private histopathology laboratory in Wasit Province to include cases referred from 1st January 2019- 1st April 2021. The results of fine needle aspiration cytology, clinical examination, and ultrasound were compared to those of histopathology to assess the diagnostic accuracy of them.
RESULTS:
This study included 60 women with breast lesions. The results of this study shows that 36 (60%) of cases were approved as having breast cancer and 24 cases (40%) were approved as benign breast lesions. Twenty five women (41.7%) were aged 40-49 years. There were 22(36.7%) women presented with regular mobile soft mass, 12(20%) women with irregular immobile hard mass. Forty six percent of all women (28 cases) were presented with breast lesion located at upper outer quadrant.
The validity of clinical diagnosis according to the gold standard histopathology in diagnosing breast masses found to be 68.3%, the sensitivity and specificity of clinical diagnosis for detecting breast masses according to the gold standard histopathology were52.8%, 91.7%respectively.
Validity of Ultrasound test according to the gold standard histopathology in diagnosing breast masses found to be 86.7%, 80.6% sensitivity, 95.8% specificity.
Validity of FNAC according to the gold standard histopathology found to be 93.3%.
91.7% sensitivity, 95.8% specificity, only 3 cases was false negative.
Validity of triple assessment according to the gold standard histopathology found to be 97.4%, 94.1% sensitivity, 100% specificity.
CONCLUSION:
The most accurate of the three components of the triple test (clinical assessment, ultrasonography examination, and fine needle aspiration cytology) is fine needle aspiration cytology. The triple modalities are more accurate when used together than when used separately.
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