3.3. BI-RADS

Another visual method is the Breast Imaging-Reporting and Data System (BI-RADS) developed by the American College of Radiology (ACR), which is intended to provide a standardized method for reporting and streamlining imaging interpretations. This method also sought to help indicate the potential masking effect of dense breast tissue. Although a qualitative system to start with, the 4th edition of BI-RADS incorporated a quantitative component to the category definitions [35]. More recently, the ACR has released the BI-RADS 5th Edition [36], which has removed the quantitative aspect to return to a more subjective scoring system (Table 1). Both in the US and internationally, the BI-RADS density classification system is the most widely used clinically by radiologists.

BI-RADS 4th and 5th edition category definitions.