HILINA: minimising the breast compression time at stereoguided biopsy

With mammography alone it is often difficult to distinguish between benign and malignant microcalcifications in the breast, and image-guided biopsy is widely undertaken for clarification. National Health Service Breast Screening Guidelines recommend that representative microcalcifications must be demonstrated in core specimens on specimen radiography: to achieve high absolute sensitivity for malignancy, at least five flecks of calcium in three cores are required [1].

An innovative device (HILINA), which was designed and developed locally, fits onto the tube housing of the Novation/Nova with Opdima digital stereo biopsy unit (Seimens Corporation, Camberley, UK), and allows direct digital capture of core biopsy images during breast compression. This shortens the breast compression time and allows rapid termination of the biopsy procedure.

Analysis of the visibility of microcalcifications in core biopsy specimens from 20 consecutive patients has demonstrated that this is a satisfactory, cost-effective method of documenting adequate sampling when compared with cabinet computed radiography.