Dear AuntMinnie Member,
Breast imaging specialists for the past several years have explored scintimammography as a potentially useful adjunct to x-ray-based mammography. Their hope is that scintimammography's functional imaging abilities could offset mammography's shortcomings, especially with regard to the imaging of dense breasts.
Dear AuntMinnie Member,
Breast imaging specialists for the past several years have explored scintimammography as a potentially useful adjunct to x-ray-based mammography. Their hope is that scintimammography's functional imaging abilities could offset mammography's shortcomings, especially with regard to the imaging of dense breasts.
But past studies on scintimammography's effectiveness have been less than stellar. It's possible that the issue was due to their use of conventional whole-body gamma cameras adapted for scintimammography, rather than a system designed specifically for breast imaging use.
Enter a new study that employs a gamma camera designed for breast imaging. As reported in our Molecular Imaging Digital Community by staff writer Shalmali Pal, this system replaces the bucky on most upright mammography machines, and uses compression during imaging.
The study found that scintimammography with a dedicated system can be an effective tool for women with dense breasts, finding lesions in two additional patients that weren't found with a standard gamma camera. In one patient, the cancer found by scintimammography was missed by both x-ray mammography and clinical breast examination.
Get the rest of the story in our Molecular Imaging Digital Community, at molecular.auntminnie.com. If you'd like to view articles on other breast imaging research studies, check out our Women's Imaging Digital Community, at womens.auntminnie.com.
