Eye on Health - Breast MRI

Doctors at Trinity Health in Minot now have a new tool to further investigate abnormalities in the breast Equipment upgrades are allowing MRIs to be used to scan the breast Perry Olson shows us just how effective that can be in tonight s Eye on Health MRIs are nothing new but at Trinity Health this is using the machine to capture images like this something a mammogram cannot Dr Keller Cancer causes abnormal vessel growth to feed the tumor That shows up nicely with dye Several scans are taken in just a few minutes with this machine the dye injected into the patient allowing doctors to see results like this Dr Keller Very small tumors still will have abnormal vascularity that will show up with contrast on an MRI and it is not uncommon to have a negative mammogram and have something show up on a breast MRI done properly And that can be lifesaving like this case could have been Dr Keller The mammogram was negative in this patient and didn t show any abnormality It is clearly obvious in the MRI and was negative on the mammogram and this woman has cancer throughout her breast This patient will get chemotherepy to shrink the tumor prior to the surgery in an effort to make the tumor small enough that she can have breast conservation therapy and she can keep the breast So with results like that will the mammogram become obsolete Not so says Dr Keller mainly because an MRI isn t considered medically needed in about 95 percent of cases therefore the close to one thousand dollar test is not covered by most plans Dr Keller So if you are a woman and you just want a mammogram you can walk in and have that done and paid for and it will be If you want an MRI because you want the peace of mind and you think it is better they won t pay for that Something the doctor hopes to see changed in the years to come as the benefits of MRI when looking for breast cancer is fully understood With your Eye on Health Perry Olson KX News