Imperfect Correlation of Mammographic and Clinical Breast Tissue Density

Abstract

<b>Background:</b> Clinicians determine degree of mammographic density based on tissue firmness on breastexamination. The study aimed to compare breast density in mammography and clinical breast examination.Materials and <br/><b>Methods</b>: Six-hundred sixty three women 40 years of age or older were studied. The breast examdensity was graded from 1 to 4 by two expert surgeons and the mammographic parenchymal density by twoexpert radiologists. Then for practical reasons, grades 1 and 2 were considered as low-density and grades 3 and 4as high-density. <br/><b>Results</b>: High and low densities were detected in 84.5% and 15.5% of clinical breast examinationsand 59.7% and 40.3% of mammographies, respectively. The statistical analysis showed a significant differencebetween the breast tissue densities in breast examination with those in mammography. <br/><b>Conclusions</b>: A clinicallydense breast does not necessarily imply a dense mammographic picture.