key: cord-0042717-dzniszze
authors: Orsi, Marcello A; Oliva, Giancarlo; Cellina, Michaela
title: Comment on “Response to COVID-19 in Breast Imaging”
date: 2020-04-16
journal: J Breast Imaging
DOI: 10.1093/jbi/wbaa031
sha: 4c4c20da2760641f8b0783e38d3a6704c6355977
doc_id: 42717
cord_uid: dzniszze

nan

To the Editor:

We read with great interest the article "Response to COVID-19 in Breast Imaging" published April 01, 2020 (1) . COVID-19 has spread worldwide, with more than 1 million of confirmed cases in 207 countries worldwide as of on April 4, 2020 (2) . The measures put in place to combat COVID-19 disease are impressive, with negative consequences and uncertainty in various sectors (3) . In this situation, it is mandatory to reorganize the clinical activity in order to continue providing essential services. The authors of the article highlighted some important key points of managing a breast imaging department during the COVID-19 pandemic (1).

A rapid and unexpected surge of COVID-19 contagion in the northern part of Italy forced our hospital, in Milan, to respond quickly, without any comparison, to this event (4).

Our screening activity (12,000 mammograms per year) was suspended on February 24th, then reopened on March 2nd and then suspended again on March 9th, following the evidence of a growing infection. Regarding the important recommendations provided, we would like to emphasize the protection of staff and patients through temperature control and the administration of a screening questionnaire; in addition, both staff and patients are provided with a surgical mask to be worn in the hospital.

A breast radiologist and a technologist must always be available for urgent cases: evaluation and sampling of Breast Imaging Reporting and Data System (BI-RADS) 4 and 5 (5) lesions, clinical symptoms, known cancer needing localization, and extent of disease determination. Moreover, a staff person is always present to answer the phone. A subset that deserves to be better analyzed are BI-RADS 3 patients. As stated by Drs. Plecha and Leung (1), this category could be rescheduled; in order to do this, we ran a query in the reports from July to October 2019 for the words "BI-RADS 3" and contacted these patients, who were happy for this initiative.

Ascertained that we are facing an unprecedented situation, we underline and support the need for a "standard operating procedure" in the setting of re-scheduling exams and case management, to avoid unequal attitudes or possible lawsuits.

.

Response to COVID-19 in Breast Imaging

World Health Organization. Coronavirus Disease (COVID-19) situation dashboard

Forecasting the novel coronavirus COVID-19

Radiology Department Preparedness for COVID-19: Facing an Unexpected Outbreak of the Disease