Women wanting the highest quality images from their mammograms can now get them at St. Luke’s Hospital. October is National Breast Cancer Awareness month, which makes this month's unveiling of digital mammography at St. Luke’s Hospital especially appropriate.

The new state-of-the-art machines include two digital mammography units, one invasive stereotactic biopsy machine, one bone density, one ultrasound and one breast imaging machine that will help in the early detection of breast cancer.

“This is something we didn’t offer before and is brand new to the medical imaging department,” says St. Luke’s Medical Imaging Director Bill Schoepfer. “Digital is the way to go. This is extremely beneficial to the community.”

St. Luke’s Hospital Chief Radiologist, Juan Luis-Jorge, M.D., says the equipment is extremely beneficial to the community, especially younger women with dense breasts.

Traditional mammograms use in-screen film to capture the breast image on x-ray film. The film is then developed and sent to a physician to interpret. In digital mammography, the breast image is captured on specially designed digital detectors that convert x-rays into an electrical signal, which is then sent to a computer where a radiologist can view the image on a high-resolution computer. “The main difference between the two is like analog and digital television. Digital is more detailed and the picture is enhanced,” says Schoepfer.

When breast tissue is x-rayed, it creates an image that looks something like a smoky haze, making it difficult to see tiny microcalcifications and other subtle signs of the early cancer. With digital mammography, the radiologist reviews the images using special high-resolution monitors and can zoom in for close-ups of areas in question. Being able to manipulate the images is one of the many benefits of digital technology.
Digital technology not only speeds up the process by producing the largest image available in image in a matter of seconds, it also reduces the chance that patients would need to return for additional images because the first ones weren’t readable.

In addition, the chance of losing the films is no more.

“Digital images are much easier to retrieve,” says Dr. Luis-Jorge. “You don’t have to worry about losing the films—if the patient has to have a biopsy, they would check out the films to take with them and sometimes we never get the film back. This way when the patient comes back for a follow-up, their records will always be in the system.”

The digital mammography equipment will be ready for patients in mid-November.
The American Cancer Society recommends that all women have a baseline screening mammogram between the age of 35 and 40 and that beginning at the age of 40, women have annual screenings.