American Journal of Roentgenology, Vol 162, 593-594, Copyright © 1994 by American Roentgen Ray Society
The American College of Radiology's mammography lexicon: barking up the wrong tree?
KS Heilbrunn
Imaging Associates, Inc., Seattle, WA 98104.
Mammography reports are often wordy and inconclusive. To solve this
problem, the American College of Radiology (ACR) created the Breast Imaging
Reporting and Data System (BI-RADS) with a lexicon of specifically defined
words, designed to be used, exclusive of any other terminology, to describe
all significant breast imaging findings. The premise for developing BI-RADS
was that strict verbal uniformity is a prerequisite for a national
mammography data base and will also result in concise, directive reporting.
Although this approach seems reasonable at first glance, BI-RADS, in my
opinion, has several fundamental flaws.