Journal of Oncology Translational Research

The Mamma-CT. Senological diagnostics in a new dimension.

Abstract

Karsten Ridder

The new modality oft the dedicated Mamma-CT is offering a robust and comfortable Examination of the breast. It is working without any compression and produces 3D-images of the breast without any superimposions. Therefore it is avoiding two of the major problems of conventional mammography: Pain for the examined women and superimposion of glandular tissue. Adding a very short examination time, extremely high resolution oft he acquired images and the facultativ usage of contrast-media, the new technology oft the Mamma-CT emerges to be one of the greatest invention of senological diagnostics in the last years. Despite the first impression of being nothing more, than a nice tool for further assessment and an evaluation method for complex microcalcifications or multifocal findings, the Mamma-CT has a lot of possibilities in daily routine and turns out to becoming a real problem solver. Due to its robustness, short examination time, high resolution of 0.15mm in an isotropic manner, great comfort and usability of contrast media it fills the great gap between conventional Mammographie / tomosynthesis / contrast-Mammographie (TiCEM) and MRI. Even more it has the potential of becoming the reference modality for patients with Breast-implants or the clinic of secreting/bleeding mamilla. In the first case, the Mamma-CT offers high-end imaging of the breast AND the implants in one exam - without any compromise in sensitivity / specifity or risk of damaging the implants due to compression. In the second case, the mammo-CT can be used as a 3D-high-resolution-imaging tool for a classic galactrography – a complete new way of diagnosing intraductal tumors, like papillomas. This talk shows the technological background, the physics and advantages of this modality. It helps you to compare it to the traditional technologies and classify it in the setup of a multimodality approach in modern senological diagnosis. It gives also some breathtaking examples of this fascinating modality and cases out of daily routine.