RSNA studies mine DMIST data for mammo insights

Dear AuntMinnie Member,

The Digital Mammographic Imaging Screening Trial (DMIST) was a watershed event for digital mammography when the study results were released in September 2006. DMIST showed that full-field digital mammography (FFDM) is at least the equal of film-screen mammography (FSM) for the general population, and exceeds its analog counterpart in certain patient groups, such as younger women with dense breasts.

Breast imaging researchers are now digging deeper into the DMIST data to produce additional insights into FFDM's performance characteristics relative to analog mammography, according to an article we're featuring this week by staff writer Shalmali Pal in our Women's Imaging Digital Community.

In a series of presentations from last month's RSNA show, DMIST researchers explored topics ranging from FFDM's accuracy in dense breasts to the accuracy ratings of particular FFDM systems, as well as whether hard-copy or soft-copy reading is better in detecting cancers.

The research did produce some surprises -- one study actually contradicted the earlier DMIST results, finding that analog mammography was superior to FFDM in detecting cancers in dense breasts. Further studies are already under way that may clarify the situation.

Get the rest of the story by clicking here, or visit our Women's Imaging Digital Community at women.auntminnie.com.