SELECTIVE DIGITAL ENHANCEMENT OF CONVENTIONAL FILM MAMMOGRAPHY

Screening mammography continues to play a key role in the early diagno sis of non-palpable breast cancer. Approximately 5% of patients will h ave lesions on their mammograms that appear neither clearly benign nor malignant. The proper management of these patients is not well define d. In this study, the mammograms of 64 women who underwent breast biop sy were reviewed. After the initial review, the mammograms were reeval uated using a personal computer driven digital conversion and enhancem ent system. The majority of indeterminate lesions were assigned a dete rminate diagnosis by enhancing the areas of abnormality through enlarg ement, contrast adjustment, and brightness adjustment. The radiologist s were able to maintain baseline sensitivity and specificity throughou t this process. In contrast, enhancement of lesions initially assigned a diagnosis of characteristically benign or malignant demonstrated no advantage over plain film mammography. These findings suggest a role for the selective use of digital mammography and enhancement technique s. (C) 1994 Wiley-Liss, Inc.