Dear Women's Imaging Insider,
What if you could determine which mammograms acquired at breast screening are most likely to have cancer and focus on those cases first? And what if you could do it with digital breast tomosynthesis (DBT) studies, which are known to be more challenging to read than conventional mammograms?
A group of researchers led by Dr. Emily Conant of the University of Pennsylvania did just that, and they presented their work at last week's ECR. They used a commercially available artificial intelligence (AI) algorithm to analyze DBT exams and triage the cases that were least likely to have cancer.
Conant isn't ready to say these low-risk exams shouldn't be read by humans at all. But the AI software could help breast imagers either prioritize cases at higher risk or deprioritize those at lower risk -- saving precious resources. Check out this edition's Insider Exclusive for more.
In other news in women's imaging, a new study is examining the age at which women should stop getting breast screening. Researchers from Emory University studied breast cancer rates, finding that incidence rates remained high in women ages 75-79 but started dropping rapidly after that. The problem is that there is little guidance on whether these older women should get screening.
Perhaps you've heard the reports about cases of adenopathy occurring in women after they've received the COVID-19 vaccine. The phenomenon is common enough that some healthcare providers have advised women to schedule their mammograms around their vaccination appointments. In a guest column, Dr. Kristy Wolfel of Cambria Somerset Radiology in Pennsylvania explains what to look for.
Other important stories in the community recently include an article on how an AI algorithm was able to reduce variability in calculations of breast density, as well as a recent study on how skipping even one mammogram appointment can increase a woman's risk of dying from breast cancer.
These are just a few of the stories you'll find in the Women's Imaging Community. Check out the headlines below for more of our coverage.
