Should surgeons as well as radiologists report mammograms in symptomatic patients?

This study compared the accuracy of interpretation by surgeons and radiologists of 1053 women who had two view mammography and a histological or cytological diagnosis of benign or malignant breast disease. Patients with large or locally advanced breast cancers who had definite clinical findings where radiology was not required to make a diagnosis were excluded. The sensitivity for radiologists was non-significantly greater (81%) than surgeons (78%), but specificity and positive predictive value was identical in the two groups of readers. Combining the reports of the radiologists and surgeons increased sensitivity to 85.4% which is a significant increase in the sensitivity of the radiologist alone, P =0.02. This study indicates that symptomatic mammograms should be read by surgeons as well as radiologists.