A study to evaluate the accuracy of modified triple assessment in the preoperative diagnosis of patients with breast lump

Abstract

Background: The advances in modern surgery era for assessment of breast lumps have not replaced the triple assessment, which are clinical examination, radiological examination and pathological examination. Aims and objective: The aim of this study was to evaluate accuracy of modified triple assessment in the preoperative diagnosis of patients with breast lump. Methods: A descriptive cross sectional study was conducted in the Department of General Surgery, AIIMS, Patna, Bihar, India from December 2017 to September 2018. A total of 400 patients with a breast lump were included in this study. A detailed history, focused clinical examination, radiological imaging and FNAC were used as diagnostic tools for screening of the patients. Results: The most common age group in this study is 41 to 50 years of age. Mean age is 38.66 ± 15.26 years. Youngest patient was of 10 years of age and oldest patient was 63 years of age. The result of individual components as overall M.T.T were tabled above and compared with the final histopathological examination. Result of physical examination showed sensitivity 90.88% and specificity 95.33% for diagnosing malignant breast lesion. The ultra-sonography revealed 89.66% of sensitivity, 97.89% of specificity. FNAC revealed that 95.75% sensitivity while specificity was 99.12%. Conclusions: The modified triple test can reliably guide the evaluation and management of breast lump. 

Keywords: Clinical Examination, Mammography, Ultrasonography, Fine-needle Aspiration Cytology, Carcinoma, Modified triple assessment.