Dear Women's Imaging Insider,
Digital breast tomosynthesis (DBT) is great for assessing lesion visibility and lesion extent and also for discriminating between malignant and benign lesions. However, there's one thing it doesn't do so well at detecting. What is it? Find out.
Speaking of DBT, the modality was a hot topic at the recently concluded ECR 2016. Some researchers are urging full-steam ahead in adopting the technique, while others are urging more caution. Where do you fall in the spectrum? Let us know in the Forums.
Along those lines, a study presented at the European Breast Cancer Conference found ultrasound has an edge in sensitivity over DBT as an accompaniment to standard 2D mammography in women with dense breast tissue. But better sensitivity may not be enough to make ultrasound the gold standard for these women. Why not? Read more.
Also in your Women's Imaging Community, we have several stories from this month's ECR 2016 that you won't want to miss.
One is on the use of social media. A U.K. university used social media to craft an online hub to discuss breast imaging. "These people are really, really busy, and it's very difficult to get groups of busy women into a situation where they can have some discussions about what might be included in an online hub," the lead researcher said. "These people are working, they're in the 45-to-55 population age group, and it proved impossible to get them in to do some focus groups and interviews, so we decided to use social media to enable us to carry out the research."
There's also a story about the ins and outs of imaging dense breasts. During ECR, researchers showcased tools for quantification and explained how high breast density may lead to changes in imaging strategies.
Last but not least, we have two items on breast MRI that are worth a close look. The first is a video interview with Dr. Christiane Kuhl. She says MRI has a central role to play in the future of breast screening, but a concerted effort is needed to resolve the remaining challenges.
In the second, Russian researchers found an abbreviated breast MRI protocol that takes approximately 4 minutes has comparable diagnostic performance with the full-breast MRI protocol and could be considered useful for dense-breast analysis in high-risk patients. Read about it.
There's a lot more in your Women's Imaging Community so be sure to head on over there or read below this message.
As always, I enjoy hearing from you so contact me anytime.
