What You Need to Know About Breast Mammography and 3D Mammography

With age and due to certain factors the risk of breast cancer increases among women. In order to ascertain the right method of treatment it is necessary to first detect the cancer and for this certain screening tests are required.
Breast mammography and 3D mammography or Tomosynthesis are the most commonly used methods for the screening and detection of breast cancer.

What is mammography?

A mammogram is essentially a low dosage X ray of the breasts and this method is being used since the 1980s.

How it works

The breasts are squeezed for a short period of time in two positions and their X rays are taken. This process takes about 10 minutes although sometimes additional images may be needed for including all the tissue. Due to the compression the amount of radiation required to penetrate the tissue become reduced and the tissue is also spread out allowing the production of excellent images. Due to compression the movement is also reduced which in turn reduces the chance of the images getting blurred. The cancers appear as masses and areas of tissue anomaly, calcifications and or distortion. Sometimes such masses are also produced due to noncancerous conditions.

What are the benefits?

The density of a woman’s breast can be determined with the help of a mammogram and is rated on four levels. Mammography or 3D mammography is recommended as the first step in the detection of breast cancer for women of age 40 years and older except if the woman is pregnant. If your healthcare provider considers you to be at high risk then mammography should be started at the age of 30. Screening mammography is the only method which has been studied with the help of randomized controlled trials. As a result of this technology the deaths due to cancer have reduced a great deal.