Objective assessment of reconstructed breast hardness using a durometer

On Baker grading, 17 breasts were Baker grade I, 52 breasts were Baker grade II, 11 breasts were Baker grade III, and 1 breast was Baker grade IV. Mean capsular thickness on MRI was 1.1 (SD 0.4) mm with Baker grade I, 1.2 (SD 0.3) mm with Baker grade II, 1.4 (SD 0.4) mm with Baker grade III, and 1.9 mm with Baker grade IV. Mean durometer value was 0 with Baker grade I, 0.2 (SD 0.5) with Baker grade II, 2.0 (SD 1.7), with Baker grade III, and 8 with Baker grade IV. Baker grade IV was excluded from analysis because there was only one case. When Baker grade III was defined as positive for hardness, multiple logistic regression analysis showed that durometer value was associated with Baker grade III (p = 0.0005), but capsular thickness was not. On receiver operating characteristic curve analysis of the durometer value for Baker grade III, the optimal cutoff value was 0.5 (sensitivity 0.92, 1-specificity 0.17, area under the curve 0.92).