The study included 649 patients who underwent screening between June and September 2015 on a full-field digital mammography device and a Hologic Selenia Dimensions digital breast tomosynthesis unit equipped with the company's C-View synthetic 2D software. Breast imagers compared the synthetic 2D images with the FFDM images using a five-point scale.

Of the 649 studies, 60.4% were categorized as BI-RADS 1, 31.3% as BI-RADS 2, and 8.3% as BI-RADS 0. Ten biopsies were performed, three of which confirmed malignancies, noted Dr. Valerie Fein-Zachary and colleagues from Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center.

Fein-Zachary's group discovered that of the BI-RADS 1 exams, radiologists found synthetic 2D images to be equivalent to FFDM in 86.5% of the cases, better than FFDM in 2.6%, and worse in 10.9%. For the BI-RADS 2 and 0 exams with no specific findings, synthetic 2D images were equivalent to FFDM in 75.5% of cases, better in 6.1%, and worse in 18.4%.

The study results suggest that synthetic 2D images with tomosynthesis could be increasingly adopted into clinical practice, reducing patients' radiation exposure and maximizing the benefits of DBT, Fein-Zachary concluded.