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Computer aids for detection and diagnosis in mammography

Centre for Health Informatics and Multiprofessional Education, Royal Free and University College Medical School, Archway Campus, Highgate Hill, London N19 3UA, UK

• Screening: Interpreting screening mammograms is difficult; radiologists must maintain specificity while reading films with a very low incidence of cancer. Estimates suggest sensitivity is no higher than 75%.
  
• CAD: Commercial systems are now available that prompt radiologists to look at suspicious regions. Such systems achieve high sensitivity but at low specificity.
  
• Evaluations: Evaluations of these CAD systems reveal that they do well at detecting microcalcifications but less well at detecting masses.
  
• Impact on decision-making: The low specificity of the computer prompts seems to hinder their capacity to influence radiologists' decision-making.
  
• Prospective trials: Only one prospective trial has been carried out of a CAD system for mammography. A replication of this trial in a UK setting is awaited.
  

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				P M Taylor, J Champness, R M Given-Wilson, H W W Potts, and K Johnston An evaluation of the impact of computer-based prompts on screen readers' interpretation of mammograms Br. J. Radiol., January 1, 2004; 77(913): 21 - 27. [Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF]