Mammography - Clinical Information
Case Studies
Skin Marking Case Study (Analog)
This case involves a patient who had an initial screening mammogram. An area of concern was marked with a grease pencil by the Radiologist. This was interpreted as a suspicious lesion and the patient was subjected to a repeat exam.
Same patient repeated, but technologist noticed a raised mole and marked it with a Beekley Light Image O-SPOT mole marker. Conclusion: using a mole marker the first time would have saved unnecessary additional films, repeats, callbacks, time and most importantly, patient anxiety.
 Suspicious lesion marked with grease pencil. (see yellow highlighted area above). |  Mole re-imaged within marker clarifies "suspicious lesion". |
Routine use of Beekley O-shaped mole markers clarifies skin lesions that mimic pathology on mammograms.
Have you ever encountered a situation where a suspicious area showed up on a patient's film and you called the patient back for a diagnostic work-up....only to discover that the "suspicious area" was really a skin mole? On mammograms, moles frequently present problems when they appear to mimic a new mass and possibly even a cancer. Many mammographers note the presence of moles on the breast diagram, but this fails to take into consideration that the shape of the breast is altered by compression. Raised moles image about 10% of the time and you never know when they will. They often image on one view and may image one year and not the next. Marking can help clarify this issue. Learn more about mole marking by reading the case presentation here.
"Mammographic markers may lead to confusion and liability" A malpractice article from March 2005's Diagnostic Imaging
Radiologists in a modern mammography practice are often confronted with marking devices that have been placed on a patient's breasts. These situations include cases of palpable abnormalities as well as skin lesions such as moles and even marking of prior biopsy sites. The type of mammographic marking device used is quite variable, and this lack of standardization may cause major difficulties in interpretation. Learn more about mammographic marking by reading the article here.
