(Tuesday, 7/16/2019) 1:15 PM - 1:45 PM
Room: Exhibit Hall | Forum 8
Purpose: Mammography has aided in the early detection of breast cancer. While mammography has benefits, the use of x-rays for the purpose of imaging always provides a risk to the patient. While this risk is very low, mammograms that must be repeated only add to this patient risk. Additionally, any rejected images, including those repeated images, only hinder the ability for diagnosis and screening.
Methods: Annual repeat/reject data for 2018 was taken retrospectively from one breast imaging center, across four Hologic Selenia Dimensions 3D mammography units. The number of exposures given across all units in 2018 were 97,715, divided into 28,967, 29,472, 20,121, and 19,155 for the four rooms. Reasons for repeats/rejects were listed in the console of the imaging unit, which can be grouped into technologist errors, patient motion, hardware errors, and software issues.
Results: Across all four rooms for 2018, the total repeated images were 456, and the total rejected images were 1,604, resulting in a repeat ratio of 0.47% and a reject ratio of 1.64%. Common reasons for repeated images were patient positioning (82.24%), patient motion (13.60%), and image artifacts (2.63%). Common reasons for rejected images were patient positioning (50.50%), patient motion (20.39%), and x-ray equipment failure (17.02%). When looking into each individual room, the repeat rates were 0.60%, 0.58%, 0.53%, and 0.01%, and the reject rates were found to be 1.63%, 1.28%, 1.57%, and 2.29%.
Conclusion: The common reasons for repeats/rejects include technologist errors, patient motion, and equipment malfunctions. While these rates are very low, additional effort put into reducing the repeat and reject rates can only improve patient care and imaging. Further work can be put into acquiring the data from different breast imaging centers, and analyzing the data from previous years to find a trend in the repeat/reject rates.
Keywords
Mammography, Quality Assurance, Quality Control
Taxonomy
IM- Breast x-ray Imaging: Quality control
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