BILOXI—At the start of the summer season, Biloxi Regional Medical Center, a 153-bed acute care facility located on the Mississippi Gulf Coast, added a service that improves the detection process for breast cancer while also making it more comfortable for patients.

 

The Luminescence Breast System, an ergonomic modular design with comfortable patient positioning accessories, provides high resolution images of the breast, delivering excellent image uniformity and parallel imaging performance with a fast acquisition time. Its 16 channel technology also optimizes the acquisition of advanced imaging techniques.

 

"The medical center had earlier acquired the needed 'coils' to detect the signals used to form the images from the patient's breast, but now, special computer software was needed to help in managing and diagnosing the thousands of MR images that are generated in each examination," said Richard E. Kremp, MD, medical director of Biloxi Regional's radiology department.

 

InVivo, a company that has supplied Biloxi Regional's existing detecting coils and also a vast array of other integrated MRI devices for imaging, diagnosis and biopsy, made available the Luminescence breast coil detectors.

 

"It was natural, then, to choose the Invivo DynaCAD diagnostic computer system to maximize effectiveness and avoid any operational conflicts with the original detector coil equipment," said Kremp.

 

Mammography and ultrasound remain the primary methods of breast detection through screening. Breast MRI is best used in addition to a mammogram or other breast imaging test and not as a replacement for a mammogram.

 

"Those having strong family history of breast cancer may require further investigation by breast MR," said Kremp. "Genetic markers for breast and ovarian cancer may also indicate the need to be evaluated by breast MR."

 

Breast MRI may also be recommended if the patient has been diagnosed with breast cancer or their doctor wishes to determine the extent of the cancer; the doctor finds a suspicious area on the patient's mammogram; the doctor can feel a mass or the patient notices a breast change after surgery or radiation therapy that is not detectable on mammogram or ultrasound; the doctor wants to monitor the patient's opposite breast after she has been newly diagnosed or treated for breast cancer; the patient has a suspected leak or rupture of a breast implant; the patient has received chest radiation for Hodgkin's Disease before age 30; or the patient has very dense breast tissue and her prior breast cancer wasn't detected by mammogram.

 

"Some patients have very dense breasts, which make mammographic evaluation difficult," said Kremp. "Unless sonographic imaging leaves no doubt, MR examination would be a likely recommendation."

 

Another indication for breast MR involves a history of previous ovarian or breast malignancy to determine recurrence or new tumor in the breast, since 10 percent of breast cancers are bilateral.

 

"An intravenous contrast injection is used to determine the appearance and disappearance of the injection 'dye' in any part of the breast or chest wall," explained Kremp. "There are characteristic graphic wave forms that represent benign or malignant nodules when viewed on the DynaCAD computer monitor. Shape and size of these lesions also must be a part of the diagnostic evaluation."

 

Early detection and treatment remain of primary importance in malignant disease, Kremp emphasized.