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Clinic offers new mammography screening
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The latest in mammogram technology now is available at a new location
in Mount Pleasant at Carolina Family Care near the Isle of Palms
Connector.
MUSC’s Department of Radiology has expanded to this location for
accessibility and to provide care to more patients. Services include
digital mammography screening and bone density testing.
Thomas Pope, M.D., of the Department of Radiology and Radiological
Science, said these opportunities could be life saving. “We will have a
chance to screen an increasingly larger number of women for breast
cancer which is crucial to better survival,” Pope said. “It also will
mean that our referring physicians will have two more easily accessible
options for requesting mammography studies.”
 Lindsey Hosey, mammography technologist, works with the new digital mammography machine.
Digital mammography represents the very latest in mammogram technology.
Compared to standard mammograms that are recorded on film,
computer-based digital mammograms have been proven to be more accurate
for more than half the women who receive breast cancer screenings,
especially for women with dense breasts, women under 50 years old, and
women who are pre-or peri-menopausal. Additionally, final results of
digital mammograms are returned to ordering physicians within 24 hours.
Digital mammography and breast imaging arrived at MUSC largely through
Hollings Cancer Center’s (HCC) Comprehensive Breast Care program.
Locations already exist at Hollings Cancer Center downtown, MUSC
Specialty North at 8992 University Boulevard, and through the HCC
mobile van. The Comprehensive Breast Care program is the only
Lowcountry breast center accredited by the National Accreditation
Program for Breast Centers.
According to Pope, their coordinated team of highly-trained specialists
delivers the latest treatments and has built the southeast’s premier
program for breast cancer. “I believe that our overall group is
certainly one of the best in the nation with all of the latest and most
effective diagnostic and therapeutic choices that any patients with
breast problems would need to be appropriately cared for,” Pope said.
The other new offering is a bone density test. The test, also known as
bone mass measurement or bone mineral density test, measures the
strength and density of your bones as you approach menopause. When the
test is repeated sometime later, it can also help determine how quickly
you are losing bone mass and density. These tests are painless,
noninvasive, and safe. They compare bone density with standards for
what is expected in someone of a specific age, gender, and size and to
the optimal peak bone density of a healthy young adult of the same
gender.
Testing can assist in detecting low bone density before a fracture
occurs, confirm a diagnosis of osteoporosis if you have already had a
fracture, and predict the chances of future fractures. Bone density
testing also can determine the rate of bone loss and/or monitor the
effects of treatment with tests conducted at intervals.
The Mount Pleasant office is located at 1208 Two Island Court and is
open from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. weekdays. For more information or to
schedule an appointment, call 792-8439.
Friday, April 23, 2010
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