Patients will be recruited with assistance from a referring physician and through patients undergoing routine mammography in the breast imaging clinic.
All eligible women will be contacted by letter and/or phone call prior to scheduled mammography appointment to identify if they would be interested in participating in the research study. On the day of their conventional mammographic imaging, the study will be explained, and they will be offered the opportunity to participate. Consent will happen in a private room in the mammography clinic.
Once consent has been signed, a urine sample will be collected from women who can still become pregnant in order to complete a pregnancy test. Women who are pregnant are unable to participate in this study.
Women who consent for the study will be escorted by the research coordinator to a dressing room, where the subject will change into a gown. The research coordinator or research technologist will then escort the participant to the dedicated study room for the imaging exam. The patient will have the SDBT study performed in a similar manner as conventional mammography in the mediolateral oblique and cranio-caudal plane. The participant will stand up and the mammography research technologist, ensuring patient comfort, will assist in positioning their breast in the breast tomosynthesis unit with standard compression. Once positioned, the total scan time is approximately 10 seconds. Both the left and right breast will be imaged. The length of time for the positioning and examination of a subject's breast may vary but it is expected that the entire imaging procedure will take about 5-10 min, including positioning time.
The breast tomosynthesis scan will be acquired at a dose that is equal to or less than a diagnostic mammogram dose. Upon completion of the breast tomosynthesis exam, the research assistant will provide a short survey to be completed by the patient (less than 5 minutes). The survey will include questions such as the comfort level of s-DBT compared to the standard mammography.
The research SDBT exam will NOT be interpreted prior to the patient leaving the clinic. However, since there is theoretically a possibility of detecting an additional lesion not seen on conventional mammography, all images will be reviewed within a week by a qualified breast imaging specialist. If there are lesions of concern, these will be discussed with the referring surgeon or the patient's primary physician.
After completion of the patient acquisition, a reader study will be performed with five qualified radiologists.
