Mammography: Correlation of pectoral muscle width and the length in the mediolateral oblique view of the breast

Spuur, K.; Poulos, A.; Currie, G.; Rickard, M.

doi:10.1016/j.radi.2010.05.008

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Volume 16, Issue 4 , Pages 286-291, November 2010

Mammography: Correlation of pectoral muscle width and the length in the mediolateral oblique view of the breast

K. Spuur
- Faculty of Health Sciences, Discipline of Medical Radiation Sciences, University of Sydney, Australia
- Faculty of Science, School of Dentistry and Health Sciences, Charles Sturt University, Wagga Wagga, Australia
- Corresponding author at: Faculty of Science, School of Dentistry and Health Sciences, Charles Sturt University, PO Box 588, Wagga Wagga, NSW 2678, Australia. Tel.: +61 02 69332667; fax: +61 02 69332835.
A. Poulos
- Faculty of Health Sciences, Discipline of Medical Radiation Sciences, University of Sydney, Australia
G. Currie
- Faculty of Science, School of Dentistry and Health Sciences, Charles Sturt University, Wagga Wagga, Australia
- Centre for Research in Complex Systems, Charles Sturt University, Wagga Wagga, Australia
- Australian School of Advanced Medicine, Macquarie University, Sydney, Australia
M. Rickard
- Faculty of Health Sciences, Discipline of Medical Radiation Sciences, University of Sydney, Australia
- The Sydney Breast Clinic, Sydney, Australia

Received 14 February 2010; received in revised form 15 April 2010; accepted 27 May 2010. published online 24 June 2010.

Abstract

Purpose

To investigate the relationship between the width and length of the pectoral muscle in the mediolateral oblique mammogram of the breast.

Method

Mammograms reviewed for this study were performed on women undergoing routine mammographic screening with BreastScreen NSW South West, Australia. The study included a total of 2800 randomly selected mediolateral oblique mammograms from examinations taken between July 2004 and September 2006. Measurements of the width and length of the pectoral muscle were recorded.

Results

No statistically significant difference was demonstrated between the mean values for right and left width (p = 0.5293) or length (p = 0.2079). Matched pair analysis demonstrated a statistically significant difference width, (p = 0.0069) and length, (p = 0.0369). No relationship could be demonstrated between the width and length of the pectoral muscle, (p = 0.0701).

Conclusion

The inability to determine a relationship between the width and length of the pectoral muscle suggests that these criteria should be assessed independently of each other. This new understanding of the presentation of the pectoral muscle will enable clinically relevant redevelopment of current image evaluation systems to include statistically supported mean performance values. Further research is needed to explore the relationship of width and length to other key image evaluation criteria used in mammography image quality evaluation.

Keywords: Mammography, Mediolateral oblique, Image quality, Pectoral muscle, PGMI, Image evaluation systems