Publication:

Diagnostic evaluation of triple test in detection of breast lesions

Background Detection of malignant lesion leads to early initiation of definitive treatment or its exclusion saves the patient from unnecessary medication and psychological trauma. It is difficult to establish the nature of the lesion merely on the clinical examination. So “triple” test is suggested, which is a mixture of clinical examination, mammography and FNAC.

Methods The results of clinical examination, mammography and FNAC were compared with those of histopathological examination. The concordant results of the “triple test” were compared with those of the histopathological examination. Sensitivity, specificity, positive and negative predictive values were calculated for each of these tests and for “triple test”.

Results The sensitivity, specificity, positive predictive value and negative predictive value of clinical examination in this study were 74.36%, 88.70%, 69.05% and 91.07%. The same parameters of mammography were 92.31%, 93.91%, 83.72% and 97.30%. For FNAC, the same values were 92.31%, 93.04%, 81.82% and 97.27%. The triple test was concordant in 115 lesions, while results of 39 lesions were discordant in triple test. Out of 115 concordant results, 27 results were malignant on all the three tests while 88 results were benign on all the three tests. All the concordant results of triple test were similar to the results of histopathology examination.

Conclusions The triple test can diagnose malignant breast lesion with 100 % accuracy, at least in concordant results.