Abstract
Objective: To examine how use of clinical history affects radiologist's interpretation of screening mammography. Study Design and Setting: Using a self-administered survey and actual interpretive performance, we examined associations between use of clinical history and sensitivity, false-positive rate, recall rate, and positive predictive value, after adjusting for relevant covariates using conditional logistic regression. Results: Of the 216 radiologists surveyed (63.4%), most radiologists reported usually or always using clinical history when interpreting screening mammography. Compared with radiologists who rarely use clinical history, radiologists who usually or always use it had a higher false-positive rate with younger women (10.7 vs. 9.7), denser breast tissue (10.1 for heterogeneously dense to 10.9 for extremely dense vs. 8.9 for fatty tissue), or longer screening intervals (> prior 5 years) (12.5 vs. 10.5). Effect of current hormone therapy (HT) use on false-positive rate was weaker among radiologists who use clinical history compared with those who did not (P = 0.01), resulting in fewer false-positive examinations and a nonsignificant lower sensitivity (79.2 vs. 85.2) among HT users. Conclusion: Interpretive performance appears to be influenced by patient age, breast density, screening interval, and HT use. This influence does not always result in improved interpretive performance.
Original language | English (US) |
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Pages (from-to) | 219-230 |
Number of pages | 12 |
Journal | Journal of Clinical Epidemiology |
Volume | 65 |
Issue number | 2 |
DOIs | |
State | Published - Feb 2012 |
Externally published | Yes |
Keywords
- Breast cancer risk
- Interpretive acumen
- Mammography
ASJC Scopus subject areas
- Epidemiology