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Breast MRI Testing now available at Helen Ellis
10/29/2008
Helen Ellis Memorial Hospital is now offering magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) of the breast — or breast MRI. This breast-imaging technique captures multiple cross-sectional pictures of the breasts and combines them, using a computer, to generate detailed, 2-D and 3-D pictures.
Breast MRI is performed when doctors need more information than a mammogram, ultrasound or clinical breast exam can provide.
The hospital recently installed a new GE 1.5 Tesla MR unit with advanced capabilities.
Although Breast MRI is not used routinely for breast cancer screening, “it can be very helpful and recommended by the radiologist for certain difficult cases," according to Dr. Barry Weiss, chief of radiology at Helen Ellis Memorial Hospital.
This includes patients with particular pre-disposing risk factors for breast cancer, such as:
•Patients at high risk of breast cancer, defined as a lifetime risk of 20 percent to 25 percent or greater.
•Patients diagnosed with breast cancer and the doctor wishes to determine the extent of the cancer.
•The finding of a suspicious area on a patient’s mammogram.
•Examination reveals a mass or other lump in a patient’s breast, but it's not detectable on mammogram or ultrasound.
•There is a breast lump or other breast change after breast surgery or radiation therapy and it's not detectable on mammogram or ultrasound.
•When it is prudent to monitor the opposite breast after a patient has newly diagnosed breast cancer or been treated for breast cancer in the other breast.
•There is a suspected leak or rupture of a breast implant.
•The patient has a strong family history of breast cancer or ovarian cancer or the patient is known to have the BRCA 1 gene.
•The patient received chest radiation for Hodgkin's disease before age 30.
•The patient has very dense breast tissue and prior breast cancer was not detected on a mammogram.
•The patient has a history of pre cancerous breast changes, a strong family history of breast cancer and dense breast tissue.
For further information about breast MRI testing, call (727) 942-5012.
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