Alukic Erna, Bravhar Polona, Mekis Nejc
University of Ljubljana, Faculty of Health Sciences, Medical Imaging and Radiotherapy Department, Zdravstvena pot 5, 1000, Ljubljana, Slovenia.
University Medical Centre Ljubljana, Institute of Radiology, Zaloška 7, 1000, Ljubljana, Slovenia.
Eur J Radiol. 2021 Jun;139:109694. doi: 10.1016/j.ejrad.2021.109694. Epub 2021 Apr 2.
The purpose of the study was to investigate whether the use of self-compression in craniocaudal (CC) projection has an effect on compression force, breast thickness, radiation dose and image quality compared to the standard mammographic procedure.
The study was conducted on 200 female patients that were referred for mammographic imaging. Patients were randomly divided into two equal groups. In the first group, self-compression was performed on the right breast and in the second group on the left breast. The data about compression force (N), breast thickness (mm), and mean glandular dose (MGD; mGy) were collected. In addition, the differences in the mentioned variables according to the side of self-compression were compared. All mammographic images were evaluated by two experienced radiologists according to the criteria established by the European Commission.
The use of self-compression resulted in a significant increase in compression force by 21.7 % (19.8 N) and a significant reduction of breast thickness by 5% (2.43 mm) and MGD by 6.3 % (0.09 mGy), respectively. There were no statistically significant differences based on the self-compression side, and no differences were observed in image quality assessment.
This study demonstrates that the imaging protocol in mammography of the CC projection can be adopted by the use of self-compression in order to achieve better results.
本研究旨在调查与标准乳腺钼靶检查程序相比，在头尾位（CC）投照中使用自我压迫对压迫力、乳房厚度、辐射剂量和图像质量是否有影响。
对200名转诊进行乳腺钼靶成像的女性患者进行了研究。患者被随机分为两组，每组人数相等。第一组对右侧乳房进行自我压迫，第二组对左侧乳房进行自我压迫。收集了关于压迫力（牛顿）、乳房厚度（毫米）和平均腺体剂量（MGD；毫戈瑞）的数据。此外，还比较了根据自我压迫侧的上述变量的差异。所有乳腺钼靶图像均由两名经验丰富的放射科医生根据欧盟委员会制定的标准进行评估。
使用自我压迫导致压迫力显著增加21.7%（19.8牛顿），乳房厚度显著减少5%（2.43毫米），平均腺体剂量显著减少6.3%（0.09毫戈瑞）。基于自我压迫侧没有统计学上的显著差异，在图像质量评估中也没有观察到差异。
本研究表明，在CC投照的乳腺钼靶检查中，通过使用自我压迫可以采用成像方案以获得更好的结果。
