Breast MR (magnetic resonance) imaging is available for breast cancer staging and for women who have a very strong family history of breast cancer or who received chest radiation for Hodgkin’s Lymphoma as a young adult. It is important to note that breast MR is a complement to a diagnostic mammogram and does not replace screening mammography.
A breast MR is a non-invasive procedure that uses magnets and radio waves to produce a picture of the inside of the body. This test is not painful, and there is no radiation involved. During an MR of the breast, the patient lies on her stomach on the scanning table. The breast suspends into a depression in the table, which contains coils that detect the magnetic signal. The table is moved into a tube-like machine that contains the magnet. After an initial series of images has been taken, the patient may be given a contrast agent intravenously (by injection into a vein). The contrast agent is not radioactive; it is sometimes used to improve the visibility of a tumor. Additional images are then taken. The entire imaging session takes about 1 hour.
While many centers utilize breast MR imaging, Evergreen’s addition of the CADstream™ software package takes the raw data and constructs a 3D image of the breast in just seconds, providing immediate information, better quality images and more accurate results.