Table.
Cytological results of fine needle aspirations for all breast lesions by clinician doing the aspiration and classification of sample. Values are number of aspirations done by each type of clinician (percentage; 95% confidence interval)
| Classification | Clinician doing aspiration
|
Total | |||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Consultant surgeon | Pathologist | Radiologist | Senior registrar* | Registrar* | Research registrar* | Clinical assistant | Clinical nurse specialist* | ||
| C1 (inadequate sample) | 38 (58; 46 to 70) | 0 | 6 (11; 3 to 19) | 16 (55; 37 to 73) | 39 (41; 31 to 51) | 32 (42; 31 to 53) | 31 (24; 16 to 31) | 114 (31; 27 to 36) | 276 |
| C2 (benign) | 15 (23) | 4 (50) | 28 (50) | 12 (41) | 42 (44) | 34 (44) | 73 (55) | 206 (57) | 414 |
| C3 (probably benign) | 2 (3) | 1 (13) | 4 (7) | 0 | 6 (6) | 1 (1) | 9 (7) | 5 (1) | 28 |
| C4 (probably malignant) | 2 (3) | 0 | 8 (14) | 1 (3) | 0 | 0 | 4 (3) | 11 (3) | 26 |
| C5 (malignant) | 9 (14) | 3 (38) | 10 (18) | 0 | 8 (8) | 10 (13) | 15 (11) | 26 (7) | 81 |
| Total number of aspirates | 66 | 8 | 56 | 29 | 95 | 77 | 132 | 362 | 825 |
| Ratio of benign: malignant samples | 0.6 | 1.3 | 2.8 | NA | 5.3 | 3.4 | 4.9 | 7.9 | 5.1 |
NA=not applicable.
*
Combined results of two clinicians at each grade.