Conventional mammography
Description
This article is from the Health Articles series.
Conventional mammography
Conventional mammography is the way most breast imaging is performed. It is a technique that uses x-rays to create an image of the breast tissue on film. During a mammography, a woman undresses to the waist and stands in front of the mammography equipment, where her breast is slowly pressed between a plastic plate and the film while the x-ray is taken.
This "flattening" technique generally takes a few seconds. Typically, two x-rays are taken of each breast; more may be needed to view areas of special concern.
In recent years, advances have improved the procedure and reduced the radiation dose to very low levels. Even with technical advances in x-ray mammography there are still problems distinguishing malignant from benign tumors.
Three of four lesions that it detects are benign, resulting in unnecessary biopsies. Mammography misses about 15 percent of cancers. Many of the missed cancers occur in women with dense breast tissue. About 40 percent of women have dense breasts and this type of tissue can mask the presence of a tumor.
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