Imperfect correlation of mammographic and clinical breast tissue density.

BACKGROUND Clinicians determine degree of mammographic density based on tissue firmness on breast examination. The study aimed to compare breast density in mammography and clinical breast examination. MATERIALS AND METHODS Six-hundred sixty three women 40 years of age or older were studied. The breast exam density was graded from 1 to 4 by two expert surgeons and the mammographic parenchymal density by two expert radiologists. Then for practical reasons, grades 1 and 2 were considered as low-density and grades 3 and 4 as high-density. RESULTS High and low densities were detected in 84.5% and 15.5% of clinical breast examinations and 59.7% and 40.3% of mammographies, respectively. The statistical analysis showed a significant difference between the breast tissue densities in breast examination with those in mammography. CONCLUSIONS A clinically dense breast does not necessarily imply a dense mammographic picture.