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General Questions

MRI

CT

X-Ray

Mammograms

Ultrasound

Arthrograms

Nuclear Medicine

Hip Joint Injection

Bone Density Scans

When is an ultrasound recommended, and how does it differ from a mammogram?

Ultrasound is used:
- to evaluate any palpable breast lesion
- to evaluate masses, distortions, or asymmetries found on mammography
- to evaluate findings identified on breast MRI
Ultrasound forms images of the breast utilizing sound waves, not X-rays. No compression is required; a warm gel is placed on the skin and an ultrasound probe is rubbed over the skin to obtain the image.
Ultrasound can often show abnormalities which might go undetected on mammography due to extremely dense breast tissue. Ultrasound is used most commonly in conjunction with mammography, not as a replacement for mammography.
Elastography is a very new ultrasound technique which helps to measure the “hardness” of breast lesions by placing gentle compression on the lesion with the ultrasound probe and comparing ultrasound information before and after the compression. Preliminary studies have indicated that this technology may be useful in differentiating benign and malignant lesions in the breast.