Digital mammography equipment now at Marlborough Hospital Women's Health Center

Marlborough - Women who undergo mammograms at the Marlborough Hospital Women's Health Center are benefiting from the latest diagnostic technology available, digital mammography. Marlborough Hospital, which began off ering digital mammography the end of June is one of only 20 percent of hospitals nationwide off ering this state-of-the-art system.

"We are pleased to be off ering another advanced technology for the benefit of our patients," said John Polanowicz, president and CEO of Marlborough Hospital. "Our goal is to provide our patients a personal, caring environment in a community hospital setting along with the benefits of the most advanced technology available."

From the patient's perspective, a digital mammogram is like traditional film screen mammography. Both use compression and X-ray to generate images of the breast. However, instead of using film to capture and record the image, a digital mammogram used a special detector to capture and convert X-ray energy into a digital image. The resulting digital images are immediately available to the radiologist for diagnosis.

Digital mammography is also different from conventional film screen mammography in how the image is viewed and, more importantly, manipulated. The radiologist can magnify the images, increase or decrease the contrast, and invert the black and white values while reading the images on highresolution computer monitors. These features allow the radiologist to detect small calcifications, masses and other changes that may be signs of early cancer.