Mammographic positioning: evaluation from the view box.

To evaluate the quality of breast positioning for mediolateral oblique (MLO) and craniocaudal (CC) views, a prospective study of 1,000 consecutive bilateral screening mammographic examinations was performed. Six criteria were tested, including depth of tissue seen, inferior extent of the pectoral muscle relative to the posterior nipple line, presence of fibroglandular tissue at the posterior edge of the film, and whether the nipple was in profile. Pectoral muscle was depicted to within 1 cm of the nipple line or below it on 1,612 of the 2,000 MLO mammograms (81%); all fibroglandular tissue was depicted on 1,532 MLO mammograms (77%). The depth of tissue depicted on the CC mammogram was within 1 cm greater or less than the depth on the MLO mammogram on 1,586 CC mammograms (79%); the pectoral muscle was seen on 646 CC mammograms (32%). The nipple was in profile in 1,769 MLO mammograms (88%) and 1,783 CC mammograms (89%) but not in profile in either view in 83 cases (4%). Overall improvement was seen in 400 of 587 examinations (68%) when new mammograms were compared with previous mammograms. These criteria can be used to evaluate positioning performance and for quality control.