The 99mTc.Sestamibi scintimammograms of 92 patients have been reported independently by 4 observers blinded to their clinical work-up. Patients were referred from a symptomatic breast clinic, including 69 patients (75%) with either equivocal/incomplete triple assessment and 23 patients (25%) who had breast cancer confirmed by cytology and who appeared suitable for management by wide local excision. The disease prevalence in this group was 49%.
All observers had significant experience in nuclear medicine reporting. Reporting was by direct viewing of the digital data. A 5 point confidence rating system was adopted, ranging from 1 (normal) to 5 (highly probably malignant). Written guidance was provided together with a training set of images to act as examples for each of the confidence ratings. For the four observers sensitivities ranged from 85-94%, specificities from 82-90% and accuracy from 85-89% (assuming a score ≥3 indicated abnormality). The parameters of the ROC curve for each observer and the area beneath it were used to calculate the differences between curves. There was no significant difference (p > 0.05) between the ROC curves for any of the blinded observers.
McCauley E, Mackie A, Bradford IMJ, Cadigan P, Cook AIM. Accuracy and Inter-Observer Blind Reporting Variability of 99mTc.Sestamibi Scintimammography. Poster presentation at the British Nuclear Medicine Society, Southampton, October 2000 Nuc Med Commun 2001; 22 (3): 348P.
Dr. Alison Mackie, Durham Unit, Durham. Tel: +44 (0)191-333-2219.
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