Digital Mammography: Your peace of mind

Digital mammography is a powerful new weapon in the fight against breast cancer, and Southwest Health Center offers the most advanced version of digital mammography in the area.

The advantages of digital mammography
Mammograms, especially standard film mammograms, aren't perfect. That's because normal breast tissue can hide breast cancer, so it doesn't show up. Dense breast tissue and malignant cells both appear white on a film mammogram, so many early-stage breast cancers can be concealed by adjacent dense breast tissue. That produces a "false negative" result, meaning the cancer may go undetected.

Digital mammography offers a marked improvement over traditional film mammography in several ways.

First, images in digital mammography are converted into digital pictures for review on a computer monitor. Doctors view the images electronically, magnifying them and adjusting brightness and contrast on a high resolution display. This extra control makes it easier to see subtle differences in breast tissue and diagnose cancer more accurately. And since doctors have the advanced digital tools necessary to study digital mammograms in such detail, the need for additional unscheduled mammograms is greatly reduced.

Second, digital mammography can get results back to a patient more quickly than traditional mammography. Since images are captured to digital files the instant they are created, doctors can turn around results in hours or days, instead of weeks. This can be especially comforting to women who may be awaiting mammogram results on a lump detected as part of a clinical or self-exam.

Third, digital mammograms are stored as electronic files, so there are no traditional films to degrade or lose. These electronic files can be transmitted to other healthcare providers while still maintaining a copy at Southwest Health Center, meaning that there is never a chance mammograms can get lost in transit. And, of course, multiple copies of digital mammograms can be made without degrading image quality.

Finally, and most importantly, studies show that digital mammography is a significantly better diagnostic tool for detecting breast cancer. That is especially true for women younger than age 50, women with dense breasts, and premenopausal women, but every woman can benefit from the peace of mind made possible by digital mammography.

Guidelines for breast cancer screening
Since early detection of breast cancer is key, follow these breast cancer screening guidelines from the American Cancer Society:

Ages 20-39

• clinical breast exam every three years
• monthly breast self-exam

Ages 40 and older

• annual mammogram
• annual clinical breast exam
• monthly breast self-exam

Women who are at higher risk for breast cancer (for example, women with a family history of breast cancer) may require additional testing.

Talk to your doctor about scheduling a digital mammogram at Southwest Health Center.