Diagnostic clinical benefits of digital spot and digital 3-D mammography following analysis of screening findings

The purpose of this study is to find out the impact-of 3-dimensional digital mammography and digital spot imaging following analysis of the abnormal findings of screening mammograms. Over a period of eight months, digital 3-D mammography imaging TACT Tuned Aperture Computed Tomography(+), digital spot imaging (DSI), screen-film mammography imaging (SFM) and diagnostic film imaging (DFM) examinations were performed on 60 symptomatic cases. All patients were recalled because it was not possible to exclude the presence of breast cancer on screening films. Abnormal findings on the, screening films, were non-specific tumor-like parenchymal densities, parenchymal asymmetries or distortions with or without microcalcifications or just microcalcifications. Mammography work-up (film imaging) included spot compression and microfocus magnification views. The 3-D softcopy reading in all cases was done with Delta 32 TACT mammography workstation, while the film images were read using a mammography-specific light box. During the softcopy reading only windowing tools were allowed. The result of this study indicates that the clinical diagnostic image quality of digital 3-D and digital spot images are better than in film images, even in comparison with diagnostic work-up films. Potential advantages are to define if the mammography finding is caused by a real abnormal lesion or by superimposition of normal parenchymal structures, to detect changes in breast tissue which would otherwise be missed, to verify the correct target for biopsies and to reduce the number of biopsies performed.