Other women seek MRIs, which detect blood-flow changes that could signal cancer. But they're not recommended solely for dense breasts, partly because of their $1,000-plus price. Both options trigger a lot of false alarms by spotting suspicious areas that turn out to be fine. Enter the new technology. Mammograms are two-dimensional, flat pictures of a surface that's simply not flat. When technicians literally smush women's breasts into the mammography unit, they're trying to spread the tissue out so less is hidden from the X-ray. "Stereo mammograms" allow radiologists to see those X-ray images in 3-D, so that a small spot on the bottom might not be hidden by normal tissue laying over it. We have depth perception because each eye gets a slightly different view, allowing your brain to construct a 3-D view when it overlays the two, explains Dr. Newell at Emory. That's the concept behind stereoscopes, gadgets that help people see pictures in 3-D like the old cartoons of a View-Master. Stereo mammograms, being developed by Cambridge, Mass.-based BBN Technologies, work essentially the same way. Separate X-rays are taken at slightly different angles. Then radiologists wear glasses that make each eye see a separate image on special monitors. The brain "reads" that as a single, 3-D view. In a soon-to-be-published study, Emory radiologists gave nearly 1,500 women at increased risk of breast cancer both a mammogram and a stereo mammogram. Different radiologists analyzed each test. When researchers put together the results, the stereo mammograms increased detection of cancer by 23 percent, Newell says. Another plus, it decreased false-alarms by 46 percent. Related Links: |
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