Forum Discussion

socoda's avatar
socoda
Member
9 years ago

Molecular Breast Imaging

Is it only me who hadn't heard about this imaging??? I came home from work and my mum told me about Molecular Breast Imaging - which can be used for ladies/men with dense breast tissue or who have implants or scar tissue and can have a higher diagnosis rate than standard imaging such as mammogram. I didn't know anything about it but had already been notified that I was no longer able to be seen by breast screen due to my mastectomy and implant. I have to say that this has made me feel a lot more confident as I now know I won't be relying solely on ultrasound for results. 
mammogram
mastectomy
Reconstruction
recurrence
  • lrb_03's avatar
    lrb_03
    Member
    9 years ago
    Sounds interesting.  I'm seeing BS on Friday, so might have to ask about it
  • Melhay's avatar
    Melhay
    Member
    9 years ago
    Great to know - thanks for sharing this :)
    I had read about it being used as in the US too but had forgotten to ask my Specialist about it. 
  • socoda's avatar
    socoda
    Member
    9 years ago
    No apparently its an injection into the arm of radioactive dye which gets picked up by the cancer cells in the breast. You sit in a machine quit similar to a mammography machine but the plates don't need to squash you like a sandwich press. It has a diagnostic rate four times better than that of mammogram and can be used for dense breast tissue which tends to hide cancer cells on mammograms and also can be used with implants and to check scar tissue. In America it is so good that last year they were instigating tests for alternative years, one year mammogram, one year molecular imaging (so that the radioactive dye doesn't do damage by being used every year!!). I have already found a medical clinic in Sydney who do this test and bulk bill it. Sounds fantastic!!!