New 3-D mammography exams begin at hospital

By Kate Hayden, khayden@charlescitypress.com

There was a lot of excitement on Wednesday among radiology staff at the Floyd County Medical Center.

It comes down to new software in the corner of the lab, a 3-D mammography machine with a scanning mission: a 3-D exam of a patient’s breast, able to take multi-layered images that more precisely show abnormalities in breast tissue that a 2-D exam may have missed.

“With the 2-D, you just get one image to look at. With the 3-D, it takes slices, so they can actually look at different pictures and see where things might be,” said Dori Myers, administrative assistant.

Hospital staff were visited Wednesday by the Charles City Chamber of Commerce Ambassadors, who oversaw the official ribbon-cutting for the new technology.

The 3-D exam can perform better for patients who have denser breasts, because it’s able to distinguish between tissue that overlaps in the breast, versus something that needs a second look, said Kim Cox, radiographer and mammographer.

“It’s amazing with the image quality, how different it is,” Cox said.

Myers, who has had multiple relatives face breast cancer diagnoses, rescheduled her August mammogram to October just to try the new 3-D exam.

“I have been very diligent about getting checked annually,” Myers said. “The images are just so much sharper than 2-D, and I want the best possible outcome.”

The exam’s procedures are the same as a 2-D exam, she added. The exam is done at the same time as a typical 2-D exam. Since the technology is new, the Floyd County Medical Center advises that some private insurance companies do not cover additional charges for 3-D, although Medicare does cover it; a patient may opt out of the 3-D exam if they choose.

“I was able to see the 2-D image from last year versus the 3-D image from this year,” Myers said.

“We used to have (image comparisons) on a separate machine in the back. This one, it’s right there in front of you, side-by-side,” Cox said. “We always compare with previous exams … It’s really kind of neat to see the differences.”

The hospital has been using 3-D exams since the last week of September, with each exam lasting about ten minutes, radiology manager Wendy Burke said. After submitting a request to the hospital’s board of trustees, the machine was installed within a month.

“We feel very lucky we are one of the first facilities in the area to get one and serve a small community,” Burke said.

Staff are also hopeful the machine will remind women to stay on top of their breast health, Burke said. The Floyd County Medical Center recommends annual mammograms for women starting at age 40.

“I think it will trigger people’s awareness, people who say ‘Oh, I haven’t had that done for a while,'” Burke said.