Breast Ultrasound at Montclair Breast Center, Montclair, New Jersey
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| Rose Heller-Savoy, MD, Director of Mammography Services, and a Fellowship trained breast imager, performs a breast ultrasound on a patient. |
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| Dr. Nancy Elliott, Chief of Montclair Breast Center's Surgery Department and Founder of Montclair Breast Center points out details to our patient on her ultrasound image. |
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| Our new patient consults with Dr. Elliott immediately following her ultrasound guided breast physical exam. |
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| Here Dr. Hertz, breast surgeon, explains a Breast Ultrasound guided physical exam to her patient. |
Breast ultrasound is a painless examination that uses high-frequency sound waves to obtain images of the inside of the breast. New, high-resolution technology makes it possible to produce breast images that are much clearer and show an impressive extent of fine detail. The images are displayed on a video monitor that both you and the imager view together. At Montclair Breast Center, we use breast ultrasound liberally as both a screening and diagnostic tool.
Screening women with ultrasound who have dense mammographic patterns is the standard of care at Montclair Breast Center. Women's breasts differ to a great extent in how much fibrous and glandular tissue they contain in proportion to the volume of surrounding fat. Fibrous and glandular tissue appears white “dense” on mammography as opposed to fat, which appears black and dark gray. We know that cancers can be hidden from mammography because cancers show up as a density or white area, which is very difficult to detect if the background tissue is also dense.
Mammography alone is only reliable when a woman has relatively more fat in her breast. Women who have more fibroglandular tissue, that is “dense breast tissue,” need ultrasound in addition to mammography to reliably find early breast cancer. At Montclair Breast Center, we routinely find very small cancers in women with normal mammograms and normal physical breast examinations utilizing ultrasound. That's why we consider whole breast ultrasound an important part of complete screening for early breast cancer detection.
Ultrasound is also used as a diagnostic tool when an abnormality is found on physical breast examination, mammography or MRI. Correlating the physical findings from breast examination with the visual images on ultrasound can save women from unnecessary biopsies or help provide an early diagnosis of breast cancer. This represents the most sophisticated refinement of the clinical breast examination. In addition, with an ultrasound examination many mammographic abnormalities can be resolved and surgery can be avoided. Cysts, for example, are easily seen and do not need a biopsy. Complex cysts and solid masses are sampled using minimally invasive needle biopsy techniques.
ULTRASOUND - GUIDED BIOPSY
This minimally invasive technique, used to evaluate abnormalities, which were initially seen as abnormal mammographic densities, is quicker, and more comfortable than stereotactic biopsy. We use this technique as our first option when the mammogram abnormality can also be seen on ultrasound. It is also used if an abnormality is seen only on ultrasound. Only local anesthetic is necessary and there is no discomfort. A small sample of breast tissue is collected using a special needle biopsy device guided by continuous, high-resolution ultrasound images. No stitches are necessary after only a small skin nick is made. Simply a bandage is placed. This procedure is performed at Montclair Breast Center and results are available within twenty-four hours.
ULTRASOUND - GUIDED ASPIRATION OF CYSTS
A mammogram may show an abnormality that is most likely a cyst when seen on ultrasound. This may need to be confirmed definitively by aspiration of the cyst contents to insure complete resolution or if the findings are not definitive based on the ultrasound imaging alone. This is a fast and painless procedure. Cyst content does not need to be sent for analysis unless it is bloody.