{"id":69816,"date":"2012-12-10T08:40:33","date_gmt":"2012-12-10T13:40:33","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/?p=69816"},"modified":"2014-01-16T15:41:19","modified_gmt":"2014-01-16T20:41:19","slug":"seeing-the-big-picture","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/2012\/12\/seeing-the-big-picture\/","title":{"rendered":"Seeing the Big Picture"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"3d_mammo_60\"<\/a>
Kim Sokol with the\u00a0breast tomosynthesis equipment, a digital mammography system that constructs \u00a0a 3D image from a variety of angles, forming a more complete picture of the breast. (Tina Encarnacion\/UConn Health Center Photo)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

At UConn\u2019s Carole and Ray Neag Comprehensive Cancer Center<\/a>, patients with breast cancer receive highly personalized, state-of-the-art care from experts who specialize in every dimension of treatment \u2014 including screening, imaging, diagnosis, surgery, reconstruction, chemotherapy, radiation oncology, and rehabilitation.<\/p>\n

Recently, UConn also became the first hospital in the region to introduce the cutting-edge 3D breast imaging technology of breast tomosynthesis. This state-of-the-art screening and imaging tool offers a more complete picture of the breast, and it has been proven to reduce the number of call backs for additional screenings by almost half, according to Dr. Alex Merkulov<\/a>, section head for women\u2019s imaging at UConn Health Center.<\/p>\n

How does it work? Breast tomosynthesis is a digital mammography system which takes multiple thin slices images of the breast from a variety of angles. These images are then used to reconstruct a 3D picture of the breast, which allows radiologists to examine breast tissue one layer at a time.<\/p>\n

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Additional services for women with breast cancer at UConn Health Center include special assistance from a nurse navigator, access to promising clinical trials, services to help manage fatigue during treatment, emotional support, and access to the American Cancer Society\u2019s<\/a> vast resources.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

For the patient, a tomosynthesis exam is quite similar to a traditional digital mammogram, in which the breast is compressed and images are taken from different angles. Additionally, the entire length of the procedure takes approximately the same amount of time as a digital mammogram.<\/p>\n

\u201cWith breast tomosynthesis, radiologists can see breast tissue detail in a way that wasn\u2019t possible with two-dimensional digital mammography,\u201d Merkulov says. \u201cAnd this more precise view of the tissue means higher cancer detection rates and better visualization of lesions because the finer details are no longer hidden by the surrounding tissue.\u201d<\/p>\n

Breast tomosynthesis is especially beneficial for patients with dense breast tissue. \u201cThis new technology helps us see through especially dense breast tissue, reducing the number of call backs for extra pictures for these patients,\u201d Merkulov says.<\/p>\n

Starting at age 40, every woman should get a yearly mammogram, according to the American Cancer Society. And for those who have a family history of breast cancer should begin this form of cancer screening five to 10 years earlier.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s really important to stay on top of your mammograms; we know that mammograms help decrease your risk of dying of breast cancer by over one-third,\u201d says Merkulov. \u201cWe want to catch breast cancers as early as possible \u2014 before there\u2019s a mass you can feel \u2014 and mammograms are the way you can do that.\u201d<\/p>\n

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Follow\u00a0the UConn Health Center<\/a> on\u00a0Facebook<\/a>,\u00a0Twitter<\/a> and\u00a0YouTube<\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A cutting-edge imaging tool, unique to UConn Health Center in the region, helps detect breast cancer in 3-D.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":27,"featured_media":69822,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_crdt_document":"","wds_primary_category":0,"wds_primary_series":0,"wds_primary_attribution":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[179,1],"tags":[],"magazine-issues":[],"coauthors":[45],"class_list":["post-69816","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uconn-health","category-uncategorized"],"pp_statuses_selecting_workflow":false,"pp_workflow_action":"current","pp_status_selection":"publish","acf":[],"publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-05-19 09:31:29","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/posts\/69816","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/users\/27"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=69816"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/posts\/69816\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":88431,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/posts\/69816\/revisions\/88431"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/media\/69822"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=69816"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=69816"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=69816"},{"taxonomy":"magazine-issue","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/magazine-issues?post=69816"},{"taxonomy":"author","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/coauthors?post=69816"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}