Sutter Tracy Breast Imaging Services

Depending on your symptoms, your family history and the density of your breasts, breast imaging experts at Sutter Tracy Community Hospital can use a combination of imaging technologies to screen for and diagnose breast abnormalities. STIC has some of the best diagnostic tools around for detecting breast cancer in its early stages, when the disease is easier to treat. 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 t issue and emits low-dose radiation. At Sutter Tracy, we use digital mammography with Computer Aided Detection (CAD) software. Digital imaging offers many advantages over traditional film-based imaging, including sharper images, greater flexibility and faster service. Large sheets of film previously read on “light boxes” have been replaced by high quality digital images that can be viewed on a computer monitor. Radiologists can enlarge the digital images, adjust the contrast and use many other enhancement tools to get a better look at the breast.

If you are having a mammogram because you feel a lump or have nipple discharge, or if you have had a positive screening mammogram, your doctor may order a more focused mammogram or additional testing. We are one of the few places in the San Joaquin Valley to offer stereotactic breast biopsy and sentinel node biopsy in addition to digital mammography with CAD software. 

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.