Synthetic Mammography Gains Acceptance

The implementation, benefits, drawbacks, and future directions of synthetic mammography in screening and diagnostic settings are presented.

Course ID: Q00793 Category:
Modalities: ,

2.25

Satisfaction Guarantee

$24.00

This course has been approved for 2.25 Category A credits.
No discipline-specific Targeted CE credit is currently offered by this course.

Outline

  1. Introduction
  • Rationale for Use of SM
  • Breast Density on SM Images
  • Screening Performance Metrics
    1. Recall Rates (Abnormal Interpretation Rates
    2. Cancer Detection Rates
    3. Positive Predictive Value
    4. False-Negative and Interval Cancer Rates
  • SM Features
    1. Calcifications
    2. Masses
    3. Asymmetries
    4. Architectural Distortion
  • Factors Limiting Adoption of SM
  • Pseudocalcifications and Disappearing Calcifications
  • Artifacts
  • Future Directions
  • Conclusion
  • Objectives

    Upon completion of this course, students will:

    1. recognize what additional kind of image is required to interpret a digital breast tomosynthesis image
    2. comprehend how much additional FFDM acquisitions increase the overall radiation dose compared to acquiring DBT alone
    3. know the percent reduction in glandular dose for synthetic mammography plus DBT as compared to the dose from FFDM plus DBT
    4. identify benefits to the patient and the facility by using SM with DBT rather than acquiring FFDM plus DBT
    5. name categories of breast density as outlined in the BI-RADS Atlas
    6. know how much dense breast tissue increases cancer risk compared to those with non-dense breast tissue
    7. identify patient populations in whom breast density assessments are reported to be lower than actual
    8. recognize recommended recall rates for screen-film mammography and for DBT in the United States
    9. realize which current mammography technology decreases recall rates
    10. know how performance metrics compare between SM/DBT and FFDM alone
    11. know how the cancer detection rate compares between SM/DBT and other mammographic technologies
    12. recognize the performance metric defined as the percentage of examinations with an abnormal initial interpretation that results in a tissue diagnosis of cancer
    13. know about the PPV in recurrent SM/DBT screening rounds
    14. understand the importance of tracking interval cancer rates in any cancer screening program
    15. recognize features that appear differently on synthetic mammography compared to standard 2D mammography
    16. know how masses tend to look on SM images as compared to on FFDM images
    17. learn about characteristics of mammographic asymmetries
    18. understand the proper evaluation and follow-up recommended when asymmetries or calcifications are seen with SM/DBT
    19. know the lesion type that’s known to have a high PPV for malignancy and has historically been missed the most among interval breast malignancies
    20. recognize the factor that was shown to significantly influence physician comfort and adoption of SM
    21. recall the most common drawback of SM as identified by Society of Breast Imaging survey respondents
    22. identify artifacts commonly seen on synthetic mammography images
    23. identify an artifact, also known as a dark streak artifact caused by photon-starvation due to an adjacent, strongly-attenuating object
    24. know how improvements being made to synthetic mammography algorithms will help with the adoption of the technology