Digital Mammography
Cedar Park Regional Medical Center is proud to offer the community Digital Mammography, a new system that enables its physicians to better detect and diagnose breast cancer.
Exams are Clearer, Faster, and More Comfortable
This innovative, digital system provides outstanding image quality and clear, highly detailed images of the breast, making exams faster, easier and more comfortable than ever before. This new digital technology provides advanced care for patients by providing clear, highly-detailed breast images, which is the first step towards an accurate diagnosis.
Computer-Aided Detection Pinpoints Potential Lesions
Cedar Park Regional Medical Center’s Senographe DS is equipped with special Computer-Aided Detection (CAD) software. CAD acts as a radiologist’s “second pair of eyes” when reading a mammogram. Similar to a spellchecker system on a personal computer, this technology has the potential to detect findings that might otherwise be overlooked during the review process, thus improving the opportunity for cancer detection. CAD technology is especially effective in identifying microcalcifications in the breast, some of which can indicate a malignant process.
Patient Benefits
- Exams can take less than half the time of traditional film-based mammograms.
- Ergonomic paddle shapes to the breast, optimizing the tissue for imaging.
- Compression speed of the paddle slows when coming into contact with the breast providing better patient comfort.
- Narrow tube head allows for easy and relaxed patient positions during the exam.
- Better visibility of the breast, particularly near the skin line, the chest wall and in women with dense breast tissue.
- Consistent image quality for screening, diagnosis and interventional procedures.
- Computer Aided Detection (CAD) – This sophisticated tool helps the physician identify suspicious lesions and assists the radiologist in the early detection of breast cancer.
Important Breast Cancer Statistics
According to the American Cancer Society, it is estimated that in 2007, 180,510 new cases of breast cancer will be diagnosed, including 178,480 in women and 2,030 in men. In addition, an estimated 40,460 women and 450 men will die of this disease by the end of 2007.
Here are some other important facts:
- Cancer is the second leading cause of death in the U.S., exceeded only by heart disease
- Mortality rates declined by 2.3% per year from 1990 to 2001 in all women. These decreases are due to increased awareness, earlier detection through screening, and improved treatment
- The 5-year survival rate for localized breast cancer has increased from 80% in the 1950s to 98% today.
Contact Us Today!
Women and men can make an appointment today by calling 512-528-7035. Patients 40 and older can register for a screening mammogram without a prescription. A prescription is required for all diagnostic mammograms and for screening mammograms in patients under the age of 40.