Morciano Francesca, Marcazzan Cristina, Rella Rossella, Tommasini Oscar, Conti Marco, Belli Paolo, Spagnolo Andrea, Quaglia Andrea, Tambalo Stefano, Trisca Andreea Georgiana, Rossati Claudia, Fornasa Francesca, Romanucci Giovanna
Private Practice, 44123 Ferrara, Italy.
AULSS 9 Scaligera, Breast Unit, Department of Radiology, 37122 Verona, Italy.
J Imaging. 2024 Sep 23;10(9):238. doi: 10.3390/jimaging10090238.
Mammographic density (MD) assessment is subject to inter- and intra-observer variability. An automated method, such as Quantra software, could be a useful tool for an objective and reproducible MD assessment. Our purpose was to evaluate the performance of Quantra software in assessing MD, according to BI-RADS Atlas Fifth Edition recommendations, verifying the degree of agreement with the gold standard, given by the consensus of two breast radiologists. A total of 5009 screening examinations were evaluated by two radiologists and analysed by Quantra software to assess MD. The agreement between the three assigned values was expressed as intraclass correlation coefficients (ICCs). The agreement between the software and the two readers (R1 and R2) was moderate with ICC values of 0.725 and 0.713, respectively. A better agreement was demonstrated between the software's assessment and the average score of the values assigned by the two radiologists, with an index of 0.793, which reflects a good correlation. Quantra software appears a promising tool in supporting radiologists in the MD assessment and could be part of a personalised screening protocol soon. However, some fine-tuning is needed to improve its accuracy, reduce its tendency to overestimate, and ensure it excludes high-density structures from its assessment.
乳腺密度(MD)评估存在观察者间和观察者内的变异性。像Quantra软件这样的自动化方法,可能是进行客观且可重复的MD评估的有用工具。我们的目的是根据BI-RADS图谱第五版的建议,评估Quantra软件在评估MD方面的性能,通过两名乳腺放射科医生的共识来验证与金标准的一致程度。两名放射科医生对总共5009例筛查检查进行了评估,并通过Quantra软件进行分析以评估MD。三个指定值之间的一致性用组内相关系数(ICC)表示。软件与两名读者(R1和R2)之间的一致性中等,ICC值分别为0.725和0.713。软件评估与两名放射科医生指定值的平均分之间显示出更好的一致性,指数为0.793,这反映了良好的相关性。Quantra软件似乎是在MD评估中支持放射科医生的一个有前景的工具,并且可能很快成为个性化筛查方案的一部分。然而,需要进行一些微调以提高其准确性,减少其高估的倾向,并确保其评估中排除高密度结构。