Mammographic image quality

Breast screening uses mammography to detect any small changes¹ that could indicate the presence of a cancer. However, to detect such small changes, images must be of a high standard², which is largely reliant on mammographers utilising precise positioning techniques³ – inadequate positioning has the potential to lead to false negative and false positive outcomes⁴. Thus, several National Breast Training Centres (NBTCs) are operational across England to provide the necessary specialist mammography training⁵.

Former NHS Breast Screening Programme (NHSBSP) publications employed the image classification scoring known as ‘PGMI’ (perfect, good, moderate, inadequate) to facilitate the audit of mammographic image quality². However, PGMI and similar image quality assessments are frequently prone to inter-operator variability and subjectivity, and demonstrate poor reliability⁶. Therefore, the NHSBSP subsequently removed PGMI from its guidance for mammographers, replacing it with...