DBT Screening and BI-RADS Category 3 Classification

Digital breast tomosynthesis (DBT) screening does not significantly change the utilization rate of BI-RADS category 3 classification, according to a study published in Radiology.

Researchers from the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia, and Harvard Medical School in Boston, MA, performed a retrospective review to evaluate BI-RADS category 3 assessment before and after implementation of DBT screening.

The researchers reviewed 10,728 digital mammography (DM) images performed before implementation of the DBT screening program (1,112 of whom were recalled) and 15,571 DBTs after program implementation (1,366 of whom were recalled). Any recall examinations were reviewed for calcifications, asymmetry or focal asymmetry, mass, and architectural distortion.

The results showed no significant change in BI-RADS category 3 between the two groups of patients: 168 of the women in the DM group and 206 women in the larger DBT group. There was a mean overall reduction of 2.4 women per 1,000 who were recommended for short-term follow-up, but the lesion types did not change after the diagnostic work-up.

Although there was no change in recall examinations for calcifications with DBT, the distribution of recalled finding types did change significantly, with increased recall examinations for architectural distortions and mass and decreased recall examinations for asymmetries, wrote the authors.