Health Imaging & IT - December 2008 - (Page 29)

By Sarah Lamberti IMAgIng TooLS When to Use CAD in Breast Imaging ith increasing awareness of prevention and treatment options available to treat earlystage breast cancer, screening and detection aids are at the top of radiologists’ “must have” lists. However, challenges remain to the overall market expansion of CAD, as many in the clinical community remain unconvinced as to the true clinical value of radiology’s “second set of eyes” in detecting and diagnosing several types of carcinomas outside of mammography. W Over more than a decade, computer-assisted detection (CAD) technology has proven itself as a value-added tool to aid in mammography interpretation. But as breast MRI gains in popularity for use as a second study when suspicious lesions are found, breast MRI CAD is proving to be an integral part of clinical routine for interpreting breast MR exams. Mammography’s mainstay While CAD technology for mammography continues to evolve and improve, it isn’t without a few stumbling blocks along the way. In 2007, mammography CAD took a hit with the publication of an article in the New England Journal of Medicine which claimed CAD lowered diagnostic accuracy due to the number of false positives it produces. As a result, some third-party payors contemplated reducing or cutting reimbursement. But CAD held fast, supported by a large body of scientific evidence that proves its value. Today, mammography CAD continues to detect up to 20 percent more cancers and helps detects nearly 75 percent of actionable missed cancers. “CAD is an add-on for diagnostic work or in a screening situation, to help you find something that you might miss,” says Finn Lindhardt, MD, senior consultant, Breast Center in Viborg, Denmark, a user of syngo MammoCAD from Siemens Healthcare. “You can use it for dense lesions in the breast, so that the system can mark regions of interest, showing findings [that] are suspicious.” CAD usage in mammography acts as a marker, urging the attention of a radiologist, either experienced or inexperienced, to lesions that might otherwise get overlooked or calcifications which could be the first sign of early breast cancer. However, Lindhardt says that CAD is just another add-on tool in the radiologist’s armamentarium to help in diagnosing and screening. “If you are an experienced mammogram reader, the use of the CAD system is not December 2008 | Health Imaging & IT 29 [ Finn Lindhardt, MD, senior consultant at the Breast Center in Viborg, Denmark, discusses a mammography study with a colleague. Image courtesy of Siemens Healthcare. ] HealthImaging.com http://www.HealthImaging.com

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Health Imaging & IT - December 2008 Table of Contents The Enterprise News Update Technology at Work: What You Need to Compete Why 1.5T MRI is Leading the Pack Workflow Strategies Aid Advanced Visualization Deployment Illuminating Reading Room Design for Better Reading Strategies Cardiac SPECT Sharpens its Focus OrthoPACS: The Information Backbone of the Orthopedic Clinic Imaging Tools Reader's Resource

Health Imaging & IT - December 2008

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