Yesterday, KGO-TV aired a story discussing the use of 3-D breast-screening at Stanford Hospital. As described here, the technology has the potential to identify breast cancers more accurately, "with fewer false alarms." More from the piece:
The technology is known as tomosynthesis. It's a form of x-ray that produces both two dimensional and three dimensional images in a single session. If doctors notice an area that's suspicious on the normal image, they can turn to the 3D view to essentially examine it from a different angle. Jafi Lipson, M.D. is Assistant Professor of Radiology at Stanford.
"The benefit of tomosynthesis is that you have multiple images at slightly different angles of the x-ray tube that allows you to resolve a lot of artifacts that we normally see when we take two dimensional images of the breast," Dr. Lipson explains.
Previously: Ask Stanford Med: Radiologist responds to your questions about breast cancer screening, California's new law on dense breast notification: What it means for women and Five days instead of five weeks: A less-invasive breast cancer therapy
