Mammograms and Other Breast Imaging Procedures Cancer Form

Instructions and help about Mammograms And Other Breast Imaging Procedures Cancer

a mammogram is a picture of your breasts taken with a safe low dose x-ray machine your technologist will ask you to stand facing the mammography machine and then place one breast at a time on a flat surface another flat surface called a compression paddle will gently be lowered into place to compress your breast compression is necessary to spread out the breast tissue and to eliminate motion which may blur the image the compression may be uncomfortable but shouldn't hurt compression usually lasts no more than 20 to 30 seconds during this time an x-ray beam comes from above and penetrates your breast tissue the x-ray image is either created on a film cassette located below your breast or recorded digitally and stored in a computer dense or breast tissue such as cancer or calcifications appears bright and white whereas less dense tissue such as fat appears dark or grey after the x-ray is complete the compression will release and the technologist will change the angle of the Machine again