Breast Imaging

 
The St. Francis Breast Health Center offers a full range of diagnostic technology, including digital mammography, Breast MRI and Breast Ultrasound. It also is equipped to perform procedures such as sentinel node biopsies.
 

Digital Mammography

 
Digital mammography is available in only 8 percent of breast centers in the nation ... and ST. FRANCIS eastside was first to provide digital mammography in our area. The St. Francis Breast Health Center now offers two digital mammography machines that allow for more accurate and quicker readings. Other features of digital mammography include:
  • Images can be magnified as well as the contrast and brightness adjusted, adding confidence to the interpretation and reducing the need for patient call-backs
  • Reduced dosage of radiation
  • Screening exams are quicker and can sometimes be performed in half the time
  • Images are available in just 10 seconds, allowing for a technologist’s quick verification of correct patient positioning
  • Images are stored digitally and can be easily accessed for comparative study
These types of women will find digital mammography especially beneficial:
  • Women with very dense breasts.
  • Women under the age of 50. Unless recommended earlier by a physician, your first mammogram should be done between the ages of 35 and 40 and then every year after age 40.
  • Women who are pre- or peri-menopausal.

Breast MRI


Providing detailed images of the breast through a radiation-free procedure, the Breast MRI (Magnetic Resonance Imaging) pinpoints size and location of lumps found in the breast. It helps define the lumps in a detailed way so that the physician and imaging specialists can study them.


Breast Ultrasound


The Breast Ultrasound provides a visual of suspicious areas of the breast. It is used to help distinguish between cysts and solid mass areas of the breast.



MammoPad


St. Francis is also the first Upstate breast health facility to offer the Woman's Touch MammoPad, which dramatically decreases discomfort during a mammogram (clinical studies show a discomfort reduction of at least 50%). The MammoPad is a single-use, adhesive-backed foam cushion that attaches to the compression plates of mammography devices; it does not interfere with image quality on films. The MammoPad is provided free to every patient and provides softness and warmth during your mammogram.



ImageChecker


For mammogram films, our ImageChecker can detect on films what human eyes cannot. All mammography patients at St. Francis will have their results screened by the ImageChecker. The machine scans films to detect patterns that could be problematic and marks these areas so that radiologists can view them in more detail.

Studies show that out of every 100,000 cancers currently detected by mammography screenings, use of the ImageChecker could result in the early detection of an additional 20,500 breast cancers.



Screen for Life


St. Francis has developed the Screen for Life program, funded by the Susan G. Komen Breast Cancer Foundation, to provide free screenings and diagnostics to women who either do not have medical insurance or are financially unable to pay. Qualifiers must be Upstate residents and be referred from physicians or free clinics that have privileges at St. Francis. The program also seeks to alert high-risk populations in the Upstate, like African American and Hispanic women, of the benefits of early breast cancer detection.
 

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