Breast Imaging Services in Palo Alto

Depending on your symptoms, your family history and the density of your breasts, breast imaging experts across the Sutter Health network can use a combination of imaging technologies to screen for and diagnose breast abnormalities. Mammography is the foundation of breast cancer screening, but we offer many additional imaging technologies to assess breast health. Here are some of the services we provide:

Screening and Diagnostic Mammography

During a mammogram, pictures are taken of each breast using a machine that compresses your breast tissue and emits low-dose radiation. Most Sutter imaging centers use digital mammography machines for an even lower-dose procedure that allows radiologists a better view of the entire breast to the chest wall. If you feel a lump, have nipple discharge or a positive screening mammogram, a more focused mammogram is performed.

3D Mammography

Also known as digital breast tomosynthesis, this new breast imaging technology acquires multiple images of the compressed breast and reconstructs them in three dimensions. Breast tomosynthesis provides the radiologist with more detailed information and is particularly helpful in women with dense breasts.

Breast MRI

Lying face down on the MRI table, you will be advanced into a donut-shaped spinning gantry that contains a large super-conducting magnet. Better suited to the imaging of tissue, the test may be used to evaluate a lump that is not seen on a mammogram, screen high-risk women or check for possible breast implant rupture.

Breast Ultrasound

Ultrasound gel and a wand called a transducer are placed directly on the skin to generate—and collect—sound waves, producing images of the structures inside the breast. Ultrasounds may be used for women with dense breasts or a family history of breast cancer, those whose lump cannot be seen on a mammogram, or on pregnant women to avoid the use of radiation. It also can distinguish between cysts and tumors. Some Sutter Health affiliate locations offer Automated Breast Ultrasound, which scans both breasts and adjacent structures. The automated exam collects up to 5,000 images that the radiologist can view in a motion-picture format.

Positron Emission Mammography (PEM)

PEM is a nuclear imaging procedure customized for the breast that visualizes the rapid metabolism associated with cancer. PEM enables the radiologist to assess the presence and extent of disease when MRI is not appropriate due to a pacemaker or aneurysm clip.