Comparison of woman-specific versus breast-specific data for reporting screening mammography performance

Rationale and Objectives. Screening mammography data can be reported on a b reast-specific or woman-specific level, and much mammography data available for research is woman-specific. The purpose of this study was to determine if woman-specific screening mammography data are sufficient for research a nd reporting by measuring and comparing the accuracy of screening mammograp hy on a breast-specific and on a woman-specific level. Materials and Methods. Definitions for true-positive and false-positive mam mography results were developed to distinguish between breast-specific and woman-specific calculations. The sensitivity, specificity, and positive pre dictive values of screening mammography were calculated on a breast-specifi c and on a woman-specific basis for the entire population of the Carolina M ammography Registry and for a randomly selected subset of the population. Results. Only small differences were found in breast-specific versus woman- specific calculations of sensitivity, specificity, and positive predictive values for both the entire population and the smaller subset population. Fo r both populations, woman-specific sensitivity and positive predictive valu es were slightly higher than the same breast-specific values, and woman-spe cific specificity was slightly lower. Conclusion. For research and reporting, woman-specific data are sufficient.