Women's Imaging at Catawba Radiological Associates, Inc
Digital Mammography
Catawba Radiological Associates, Inc offers the latest technology in Digital Mammography. We feature experienced, compassionate and welcoming women's imaging team to help educate and support you through this process. Our digital mammographic images obtain amazing clarity, much like the difference between high definition and standard television.
Breast compression is still necessary to obtain good images of the breasts but because of the digital technique, there are fewer “re-takes” due to incorrect exposures. Our team is usually able to check the images while the patient is still there, so if additional pictures are needed, they can usually be done in just one trip without additional appointments.
Selenia Digital Mammography
Image quality is the key to early detection. The Selenia full-field digital mammography system provides exceptional image quality and improves the efficiency of exams.
Catawba Radiological Associates, Inc also offers mobile mammography.
Stereotactic & Ultrasound Guided Breast Biopsy
What is a Breast Biopsy?
Once a breast lump or breast abnormality has been detected, your doctor may want to 
conduct a breast biopsy. This procedure involves taking sample tissue from the suspicious area to determine whether the breast lump is cancerous.
While the thought of having a breast biopsy might be frightening, the results can provide reassuring peace of mind. Remember, the vast majority of breast biopsies do not turn out to be breast cancer. And a biopsy is currently the only way to achieve an accurate breast cancer diagnosis.
Using the Mammotome® System
A breast biopsy using the vacuum-assisted Mammotome® System can help a doctor make a highly accurate diagnosis of a breast abnormality without the need for open surgery. The Mammotome® can also be used for a non-cancerous breast lump such as a fibroadenoma. A lump may be reduced in size at the same time it is biopsied, often to the point where the lump may no longer be seen under ultrasound or felt during self examination.
How It Works
Through the use of imaging methods such as X-ray or ultrasound, a breast abnormality or breast lump can be detected, even in its earliest stages. Using the same imaging methods, a physician can guide a Mammotome® probe into a suspicious area of the breast to gently collect the abnormal tissue through one small, ¼-inch incision.
With the Mammotome® System, a breast biopsy can be performed in an outpatient setting under local anesthesia. A doctor can make a precise analysis with minimal pain, scarring and recovery time. The biopsy procedure takes less than an hour, and patients can return to their normal daily activities immediately.
The Mammotome® System also can be used for fibroadenomas (non-cancerous breast lumps). Millions of women can now receive care in a doctor's office with the Mammotome® System rather than having the lump removed by invasive surgery in an operating room.
Breast MRI
Magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) of the breast is a breast-imaging technique that captures multiple cross-sectional pictures of your breast. Breast MRI involves combining the images, using a computer, to generate detailed, 2-D and 3-D pictures.
Breast MRI isn't used routinely for breast cancer screening, but breast MRI is performed when your doctor needs more information than a mammogram, ultrasound or clinical breast exam can provide. MRI-guided breast biopsy can also be performed in cases where a lesion is not clearly visible under conventional means.
Current Indications for Breast MRI:
Lesion characterization - Breast MRI may be indicated when other imaging examinations, such as ultrasound, mammography and physical examination are inconclusive for the presence of breast cancer.
- Local staging of breast cancer: In patients with biopsy- proven malignancy, breast MRI is used to determine extent of disease (multifocality and multicentricity) in the ipsi-lateral breast and to screen for disease in the asymptomatic contra-lateral breast.
- Neoadjuvant chemotherapy: MRI is used before and during the course of chemotherapy to evaluate chemotherapeutic response and extent of residual disease prior to surgical treatment.
- Post-lumpectomy bed evaluation/scar vs. recurrence: MRI is applied in patients with prior lumpectomy and questionable recurrence within the lumpectomy bed on mammography and ultrasound.
- Positive margins post lumpectomy: MRI is used to assess the extent of residual disease in patients with close or positive margins post-lumpectomy. MRI can help determine if re-excision or mastectomy will be necessary.
- Chest wall invasion: MRI is indicated for the evaluation of chest wall involvement prior to lumpectomy or mastectomy.
- Occult primary: In patients presenting with axillary lymphadenopathy and no mammographic evidence of malignancy, MRI is utilized to assess for an occult primary.
- Palpable lump: In patients with a palpable lump and a negative diagnostic evaluation on mammography and sonography, MRI may be useful to exclude an underlying abnormality.
- Problem-solving/difficult mammogram: MRI may be used as a problem-solving tool in the situation of a difficult mammogram.
- Screening of high-risk patients: Screening MRI is now recommended by the ACS for women with an approximate 20 percent to 25 percent or greater lifetime risk of breast cancer, including women with a strong family history of breast or ovarian cancer and women treated for Hodgkin's disease.
- Implant integrity: Non-contrasted MRI using silicone-sensitive sequences is used to assess implant integrity (intra- and extra-capsular implant rupture).
Ultrasound
Ultrasound as it is commonly referred to is also known by many other names; 
ultrasound scanning, sonography, and ultrasound imaging are some to name a few. Any of those names refer to the same process that uses high-frequency sound waves to produce pictures of the inside of the body. Because ultrasound images are captured in real time, they are able to show blood flowing through the blood vessels, as well as the movement of the body's organs and its structure. Click here to learn more about our other ultrasound Services>>
Women's Ultrasound Services:
- Breast
- Hysterosonography
- Obstetric Ultrasound
- Pelvis
- Ultrasound-Guided Breast Biopsy
Ultrasound Technology
Sequoia Ultrasound (Siemens Medical)- Four technology cornerstones are the foundation of the Acuson Sequoia platform's unrivaled clinical performance. They work together to deliver a new level of diagnostic confidence in echocardiography and radiology. The streamline workflow and improve productivity to enable new clinical capabilities that expand the scope of ultrasound imaging.
GE Logiq System - The innovative Logiq ultrasound system offers the advanced technology and exceptional image quality you require for breast imaging.
Bone Density Testing - Whole Body
What Is a Bone Density Test?
A bone mineral density (BMD) test is the best way to determine your bone health. BMD tests can identify osteoporosis, determine your risk for fractures (broken bones), and measure your response to osteoporosis treatment. The most widely recognized bone mineral density test is called a dual-energy x-ray absorptiometry or DXA test. It is painless - a bit like having an x ray. It can measure bone density at your hip and spine.
What Does the Test Do?
A DXA test measures your bone mineral density and compares it to that of an established norm or standard in order to give you a score. Although no bone density test is 100 percent accurate, it is the single most important predictor of whether a person will have a fracture in the future.
T-score
Most commonly, your DXA test results are compared to the ideal or peak bone mineral density of a healthy 30-year-old adult, and you are given a T-score. A score of 0 means your BMD is equal to the norm for a healthy young adult. Differences between your BMD and that of the healthy young adult norm are measured in units called standard deviations. The more standard deviations below 0, indicated as negative numbers, the lower your BMD and the higher your risk of fracture.
As shown in the table below, a T-score between +1 and -1 is considered normal or healthy. A T-score between -1 and -2.5 indicates that you have low bone mass, although not low enough to be diagnosed with osteoporosis. A T-score of -2.5 or lower indicates that you have osteoporosis. The greater the negative number, the more severe the osteoporosis.
World Health Organization Definitions Based on Bone Density Levels
Normal
Bone density is within 1 SD (+1 or -1) of the young adult mean.
Low Bone Mass
Bone density is between 1 and 2.5 SD below the young adult mean (-1 to -2.5 SD).
Osteoporosis
Bone density is 2.5 SD or more below the young adult mean (-2.5 SD or lower).
Severe (established) osteoporosis
Bone density is more than 2.5 SD below the young adult mean and there have been one or more osteoporotic fractures.
Who Should Get a Bone Density Test?
The United States Preventive Service Task Force recommends that women age 65 and older be screened routinely for osteoporosis. The task force also recommends that routine screening begin at age 60 for women who are at increased risk for osteoporotic fractures.
In addition, a panel convened by the National Institutes of Health in 2000 recommended that bone density testing be considered in people taking glucocorticoid medications for 2 months or more and in those with conditions that place them at high risk for an osteoporosis-related fracture.
However, the panel did not find enough scientific evidence upon which to base universal recommendations regarding when all women and men should obtain a bone density test. Instead, an individualized approach is recommended.
