Via my friend and fellow cancer-warrior Francesco Fondi of Wired (Italy), news that Fujifilm in Japan is launching what it calls “Real 3D Mammography,” a medical imaging system that enables technicians to view mammographic images in a kind of 3D. The idea is to see and interpret the detail of internal anatomical breast structures more clearly than is currently possible with a 2D image.
The new system costs about $181K, and is designed to work with “Amulet f,” Fujifilm’s digital X-ray equipment for breast cancer screening (sold separately). I hereby volunteer to be a test hamster for this thing some day, even though I realize the radiation payload is a little higher with this than with current mammography. But wow, I’d love to see this level of detail about what is going on inside my body right now, as I go through chemotherapy.
Takuya Otani, reporting in Nikkei Electronics & Digital Health Online:
Because the three-dimensional structures of breast tissues can be checked all at the same time, it is possible to determine if a tumor mass is in contact with a mammary gland as well as to measure the depth of microcalcification, Fujifilm said.
When a picture of a breast is taken with the Amulet f, it takes two images from different angles. Then, by displaying the two images on a special LCD monitor and using polarized glasses, it becomes possible to see a 3D image.
The special monitor is manufactured by combining two LCD monitors and a part called “half mirror.” (…)When the Amulet f is used to take pictures, a patient is exposed to X-ray radiation twice. But, with Fujifilm’s own methods of taking and processing images, the total amount of X-ray increases by only 30-50%, compared with a normal mammography, the company said.
Read more. At the Fujifilm website, an explainer with images including the one shown above.
Two images are displayed on the two high-definition monitors. By wearing the polarized 3D glasses, a 3D image can be viewed through the half mirror.