Assessment and Diagnostic Tools in Adults and Children

Assessment and Diagnostic Tools in Adults and Children Several tools and technologies have been developed and used in healthcare. This has greatly advanced the approaches used to diagnose, treat and manage health conditions. This paper explores the use of mammography, an imaging technique in healthcare. It will provide its use as well as its validity and reliability.

How Mammography is Used in Healthcare Mammography is an imaging technique that is used as a standard screening tool for breast cancers. It is a type of low dose x-rays used for breasts. It is also used alongside other clinical tests and breast examinations to diagnose breast cancer.

Buy this excellently written paper or order a fresh one from acemyhomework.com

ASSESSMENT AND DIAGNOSTIC TOOLS IN ADULTS AND CHILDREN

2

Generally, mammography is an important element in both screening and diagnosis of breast cancer. In both cases, images of the breast are generated which are studied to determine the absence or presence of cancerous growths in breasts.

Mammography’s Validity and Reliability The reliability and validity of a screening or diagnostic tool are important factors that determine its use in healthcare. In as much as the diagnostic and screening tools are necessary, using tools that are unreliable or invalid can negatively impact the health of a patient as they may warrant invasive diagnostic procedures, unnecessary medical care and misuse of healthcare resources (National Cancer Institute, n.d.).

Test reliability is the consistency of a test or tool in providing the same results over time.

In mammography, this implies that it has to consistently produce positive results in patients with the condition and a consistent negative result in healthy patients with several repeat testing (Hill & Robinson, 2015). Mammography is considered a reliable method of screening for breast cancers as it consistently produces negative test results in patients with no breast cancers.

However, the reliability of mammography can be compromised by the observer hence the need for expertise or computer assisted approaches (Becker et al., 2017).

The validity of a tool is the ability of the tool to appropriately differentiate positive tests from negative tests. Validity is determined by four important factors; sensitivity, specificity, positive predictive value and negative predictive of the test. Sensitivity is the ability of the test to correctly identify those who have the disease being tested or screened for (Hill & Robinson, 2015). A highly sensitive test has few false negative tests. On the other hand, specificity is the ability of a test to identify those who do not have the condition as negatives. Hence, the numbers of false positive values are few.

ASSESSMENT AND DIAGNOSTIC TOOLS IN ADULTS AND CHILDREN

3

In mammography, the false positive rate is estimated at 10% (Fuller et al., 2015). These positives are likely to undergo unnecessary biopsies. The factors that contribute to false positive result in patients who use mammography as a screening tool include the radiologist interpreting the result, patient factors such as age, family history, current use of estrogen and a higher number of recent biopsies (Fuller et al., 2015). Among these, misinterpretation of results by the radiologist is the leading cause of false positive test result. Getting a false negative result is also possible while using mammography. However, the occurrence of false negative is not as common as that of false positive. The common cause of a false negative result in mammography is the presence of lesions that are not visible through imaging (Maxim, Niebo, & Utell, 2014).

Over diagnosis might also occur in cases whereby a woman is diagnosed with breast cancer that may not have manifested in her lifetime hence warranting unnecessary treatment.

ASSESSMENT AND DIAGNOSTIC TOOLS IN ADULTS AND CHILDREN

4

References Becker, A. S., Marcon, M., Ghafoor, S., Wurnig, M. C., Frauenfelder, T., & Boss, A. (2017).

Deep learning in mammography: diagnostic accuracy of a multipurpose image analysis software in the detection of breast cancer. Investigative Radiology, 52(7), 434-440.

Fuller, M. S., Lee, C. I., & Elmore, J. G. (2015). Breast cancer screening: An evidence-based update. The Medical Clinics of North America, 99(3), 451–468. http://doi.org/10.1016/j.mcna.2015.01.002 Hill, C., & Robinson, L. (2015). Mammography image assessment; validity and reliability of current scheme. Radiography, 21(4), 304-307.

Maxim, L. D., Niebo, R., & Utell, M. J. (2014). Screening tests: A review with examples. Inhalation Toxicology, 26(13), 811–828. http://doi.org/10.3109/08958378.2014.955932 National Cancer Institute (n.d.). Breast Cancer Screening (PDQ®)–Health Professional Version.

Retrieved from https://www.cancer.gov/types/breast/hp/breast-screening-pdq