Women's Digital Imaging of Ridgewood First Private Medical Practice in New York Area to Screen With Breast Specific Gamma Imag...( Studies show BSGI comparable to MRI i...),Health

Studies show BSGI comparable to MRI in finding early stage cancers with fewer false positives

RIDGEWOOD, N.J., May 14 /PRNewswire/ -- Women's Digital Imaging of Ridgewood (WDI) is the first private medical practice in the New York metropolitan area and the only medical facility in New Jersey to begin using Breast Specific Gamma Imaging (BSGI), also known as Molecular Breast Imaging, to look for breast cancer in selected patients. Dr. Lisa Weinstock, WDI Director, said she added BSGI because it is comparable to MRI in finding early cancers but has fewer false positives; costs patients about one third the price of an MRI; and is a more comfortable experience, especially for women who are claustrophobic. During a BSGI exam, the patient sits in a chair and experiences only mild compression of the breast.

While mammography is still the first step in screening for breast cancer, the images are sometimes hard to interpret because of the complexity of breast tissue. Masses can be hidden by dense tissue and scarring from previous surgery can also appear to be an abnormal area.

BSGI complements mammography by showing activity at the cellular level. By seeing how the cells act and not just how the breast looks, radiologists can more accurately differentiate cancer from other structures or benign tissue.

While new for detecting breast cancer, molecular imaging has been used in diagnostic radiology by cardiologists for over 15 years to look for abnormalities in heart function. The patient is injected with a tracing agent that is absorbed by all the cells in the body. To screen for breast cancer, a special Imaging camera detects the tracing agent and translates it into a digital image of the breast. Abnormal cells absorb a greater amount of the tracing agent than non-cancerous cells, due to their increased rate of metabolic activity, and show up as "hot spots," or dark areas on the images.