[Value of galactography for the diagnostic work-up of pathological nipple discharge in multimodal breast diagnostics : Part 1: An online survey among German breast care centers.] / Stellenwert der Galaktographie zur Abklärung pathologischer Sekretion in der komplementären Mammadiagnostik : Teil 1: Eine Onlineumfrage an den deutschen Brustzentren.

ABSTRACT

PURPOSE: Galactography has been used in cases of pathological discharge for decades. Meanwhile other methods, such as high-resolution ultrasound (US) and magnetic resonance mammography (MRM) have been established for modern multimodal breast imaging. A survey among certified German breast care centers aimed to investigate to what extent galactography is currently used and whether newer techniques in multimodal imaging are preferred. MATERIALS AND METHODS: An anonymous online survey was carried out nationwide and open to 342 radiology units in certified German breast care centers. RESULTS: A total of 177 units (52 %) participated in the survey of which 13 % generally do not provide galactography, 33 % conduct a maximum of 5 galactographies per year, 24 % conduct 6-10, 18 % 11-20, 8 % 21-50 and 5 % 51-100. Of the participants 53 % give first priority to US and prefer galactography to MRM in stepwise diagnosis and 32 % prefer MRM to galactography. Only 4 % use galactography initially. CONCLUSION: Currently galactography is no longer a mandatory standard and newer methods are preferred. The evidential value of galactography in comparison to other techniques should be established on the basis of the literature. The second part of this paper will deal with this question.