New device may make mammograms more comfortable for women: Study

There may be some good news for women as researchers say that a newer, less painful mammogram may be possible.

According to a study presented at a meeting of the Radiological Society of North America, researchers believe that the improved process can exert pressure throughout the breast tissue, avoiding direct force applied to the breast.

Currently, mammographers can only estimate the pressure applied to the breasts, according to study researcher Woutjan Branderhorst, from the Academic Medical Center in Amsterdam and a scientist at Sigmascreening, the company developing the device.

Researchers tested the proposed procedure on over 400 women. Of those participants, 27 percent said they experienced less severe pain, compared to the current standard protocol.

Researchers say the images produced by the mammography were not inferior to the old technique, and could be implemented in many hospitals or doctors' offices quickly using a simple device.

Those who perform mammograms have a difficult task,  study researcher Woutjan Branderhorst, from the Academic Medical Center in Amsterdam and a scientist at Sigmascreening, the company developing the device. They must ''adjust the applied compression force to breast size, composition, skin tautness and pain tolerance," he said.

Currently, he said, the technologist doing the mammogram can only use visual and tactile clues to estimate the pressure on the breast. This results in large variations, Branderhorst said.

''Especially for small breasts, this can lead to extremely high pressure," he added.

"The device used in our study measures and displays the pressure in real time, which provides an objective guide for the technologists and enables standardization of the pressure," Branderhorst said.