Breast health

• Breast lymphoscintigraphy
• Breast ultrasound
• Digital mammography, including:
  • 2D mammograms
  • 3D mammograms (with or without curved breast stabilization system)
• Guided breast biopsy, including:
  • Stereotactic breast biopsy
  • Ultrasound-guided breast biopsy

We may use a combination of these exams to better understand your breast health. The more precise the diagnosis, the more effective your treatment plan will be.

If you would like to schedule a breast exam, please call our central scheduling team at (866) 463-7002.

Digital mammography produces a higher quality image than traditional mammography. Digital mammograms involve special X-ray equipment, which provide images that radiologists can manipulate on a computer.

Our radiologists evaluate your digital mammogram with the aid of computer-assisted detection (CAD) software. This special system increases the accuracy of their evaluation of your mammogram. This is because the enhanced images allow us to more easily target areas of concern that may require more testing.

Digital mammograms offer many benefits compared to traditional mammograms, including:

• Faster results for patients
• Higher quality images
• Shorter exam times for patients

3D mammograms

3D mammography delivers a series of high-resolution images of different layers of the breast. This technology provides screening accuracy and allows doctors to examine your breast tissue layer by layer. Instead of viewing the complexities of your breast tissue in a flat image, as with 2D mammography, fine details are more visible and no longer hidden by tissue.

Additionally, we offer our 3D mammograms with the improved comfort of a curved breast stabilization system. The curved design of the compression device mirrors the shape of a woman’s breast to reduce pinching and applies uniform compression over the entire breast for added comfort.

Advantages of 3D mammography include:

• Detects more cancers compared to 2D mammography
• Fewer callbacks for additional exams
• Reduced false positives
• Superior exam for women with dense breasts

Receiving your mammogram results

If an abnormality is found in your mammogram, the average waiting time to receive the screening results is 48 hours. Your physician will be contacted immediately with your results, and they will review and discuss them with you.

This diagnostic procedure studies a specific area found during a mammogram or a lump discovered by the patient. Breast ultrasounds are used in conjunction with mammograms. Due to their limited scope, they cannot be used as a replacement for a mammogram.

Physicians can use several technologies to guide minimally invasive biopsies of breast tissue to check for cancer. These guided biopsies enable the physician to precisely locate and target the cells for biopsy.

Each technique uses a different technology to produce images. At our hospital, we offer:

• Stereotactic breast biopsy — uses special X-ray equipment
• Ultrasound-guided breast biopsy — uses high-frequency sound waves

This procedure determines if breast cancer has spread to lymph nodes near the breast. During this procedure, your physician injects the breast with radioactive tracer material, which spreads to nearby lymph nodes.

Then, your physician uses a special camera to take images of the breast, chest and armpit areas to determine if any lymph nodes have become cancerous.