The “digital full-field mammography system”, whose quality criteria comply with the latest EU guidelines, optimizes breast cancer diagnostics. The new procedure for the early detection of breast cancer has many advantages over previous methods.
More safety
“Greater safety in the detection of life-threatening small tumors and considerably lower radiation exposure than with conventional equipment are among the advantages of the new digital mammography device that we, as a Hamburg reference center, now offer to patients,” says Dr. Toni Birtel, spokesman for the Breast Diagnostics Department at the Schäferkampsallee X-ray Center in Hamburg.
Less pressure pain
Many women still forgo mammography as part of individual or statutory preventive care because they find this examination unpleasant or even painful. Yet current scientific studies confirm that mammography is superior to any palpation test and even to ultrasound in the timely diagnosis of the smallest tumor stages.
Less radiation exposure, better evaluation
The potentially life-threatening abandonment of mammography could be stopped by the new “digi-mammo”: it is extremely gentle and relatively painless. Especially for women with larger breasts, several partial breast images were previously necessary. Due to its large detector plate, the new device now takes care of this with the classic “from above” and “from the side” image. In addition, because of the very good digital image quality, it is usually no longer necessary to take new or additional images in order to correctly identify details that are important for survival. “As a result, radiation exposure can be significantly reduced compared to conventional mammography,” says Dr. Toni Birtel. In addition, a newly developed compression plate that flexibly adapts to the shape of the breast ensures less pressure pain.
Faster findings
Overall, findings can be made not only more reliably but also more quickly with digital mammography. In many cases, this defuses the enormous psychological pressure that can be caused for women by diagnostic uncertainty. The waiting time for the film to be developed is eliminated. Diagnosis is now made directly on the screen. “Just like with a digital camera, we can assess the image immediately after recording and selectively enlarge sections of the image. Hard-to-detect changes such as microcalcifications can be diagnosed more quickly and with greater certainty,” says Dr. Toni Birtel. An intelligent computer program (CAD) accompanies the doctor on his diagnostic tour: conspicuous areas are automatically marked in the image and “presented” to the doctor for evaluation. “We first have to follow up on this hint and “answer” it in a plausible way before the device then lets us continue with the diagnosis,” says Dr. Toni Birtel.
Plea for control
But even the most sophisticated technology, says the Hamburg physician, is never a substitute for the experience of a specialist in breast cancer diagnostics, who performs thousands of diagnoses directly on patients every year. “We hope, of course, that this gentle digital mammography procedure will now be taken up by women who were previously skeptical of this safest type of breast cancer diagnosis for physical or financial reasons.”
