State of the art of current modalities for the diagnosis of breast lesions.

With the availability of numerous diagnostic techniques comes the possible risk of the unjustified use of such techniques and a lack of rational clinical application. Clearly, errors of this nature would affect the diagnostic accuracy and therefore reduce the possibilities for treatment. It is not uncommon for women and also for general practitioners to be misinformed about which is the most suitable technique or rather, which is the best combination of the various techniques. For this reason, inappropriate tests are often requested or, conversely, there is failure to request tests which would in fact make a useful contribution to safeguarding the patient's health. This work has the following aims: (a) to set out precisely the real diagnostic contribution of each method, both radiological and otherwise, and suggest methods of application and indications consistent with the state of the art, and (b) to suggest the most effective and rational combinations of the various techniques and organisation of diagnostic activities.