STUDY OF TRIPLE ASSESSMENT MODALITIES IN EVALUATION OF PALPABLE BREAST LUMPS.

Abstract

Detection of lump in the breast causes lot of anxiety and fear of a cancer diagnosis in females. It is crucial that a careful evaluation is performed so that correct and appropriate management can be organized in a timely and efficient way. The triple assessment of breast plays a valuable tool in preoperative assessment of breast masses which will be more accurate with high sensitivity and specificity. The aim of the study was to study the significance of triple assessment in evaluation of palpable breast lumps and to determine the sensitivity, specificity, predictive values and accuracy of triple assessment in evaluating palpable breast lumps. A retrospective and prospective study of 100 cases, conducted over a period of 4 years (July 2017 to June 2021) in females with palpable breast lumps and undergoing clinical breast examination (CBE), sonomammography, FNAC and histopathological examination. Out of 100 cases, the benign lesions were seen in age group 31-40 years (26%) and malignant lesions in the age group 41-50 years (12%). The most common benign breast lesion was fibroadenoma and most common malignant lesion was Infiltrating Duct carcinoma. The sensitivity, specificity, PPV, NPV and diagnostic accuracy of all three parameters of triple assessment when compared with histopathology was 100 %, 98.57%, 96.66%, 100% and 98% respectively with a significant P-value (0.00001). The triple assessment is a very useful tool to evaluate the palpable breast lumps and is easily available, cost-effective, least invasive and a rapid patient friendly diagnostic tool for the diagnosis of breast lumps thus decreasing the rate of morbidity and mortality.

KEYWORDS Clinical breast examination (CBE), Fine needle aspiration cytology (FNAC), Palpable breast lump, Sonomammography, Triple Assessment.