Carcinoma breast: a histopathological audit.

Objective: To compare audited results with original reports in cases of breast carcinoma, as a part of quality assurance programme.

Design: A descriptive study.

Place And Duration Of Study: January 2001 to December 2001 at the Armed Forces Institute of Pathology (AFIP), Rawalpindi, Pakistan.

Materials And Methods: Slides and original reports of 191 cases of breast carcinoma diagnosed by different consultants in the department were retrieved from the case files. The cases were re-examined for histological type, nuclear grade, tumour grade, lymphovascular invasion and tumour necrosis without knowledge of the previous report. The new independent observations were recorded and differences from original reports were analysed. Chi-square test was used for statistical analysis.

Results: There was no discrepancy about malignant nature of all the 191 lesions. However, 39 cases (20.4%) showed some differences of grade, lymphovascular invasion and necrosis, from their original reports. Omission of most of the parameters (n=45) was due to lack of tabulated reporting. The differences of results of lymphovascular invasion and necrosis were not statistically significant (p-values = 0.90 each), but differences of nuclear and tumour grade were statistically significant (p-value <0.001 and <0.01).

Conclusion: There was no discrepancy in the reports such as histological types or the presence of tumours. Tabulated form of reporting has less chance of omission of important parameters.