The basic safety standards for exposure to ionizing radiation have been revised in the new European Directive 59/2013/EURATOM, which must be implemented within February 2018. The Directive promotes the commitment to a comprehensive information to the patient about the risks and benefits associated with exposure to ionizing radiation and that a dosimetric data referred to the exposure should be inserted in the radiological report. Especially in the field of breast imaging, the breast weight factors wT required for the calculation of the effective dose is...

A total of 2560 breast studies (FFDM 1444, DBT 337, FFDM+DBT 779) were performed between May 1, 2016 and January 16, 2017 on adult female patients using the same device that provides digital 2D and 3D images of the breast (Selenia Dimensions; Hologic, Bedford, MA, USA). Once stabilized the breast, the DBT system acquires 15 projections over a 15° angular range (from -7.5° to +7.5°). At the central projection, the source to detector distance is 70 cm, with 2.5 cm air gap between the detector...

DBT has the potential to overcome the inherent limitation of standard FFDM that arises from overlapping breast tissues. By providing 3D images, the diagnostic accuracy can be improved as lesion conspicuity is increased. For screening, this would result in a reduction in the number of both false positives and false negative diagnosis and a decrease in recall rates. The ability to identify more lesions may result in earlier detection of tumors and in an increased cancer detection rates. DBT may allow a more accurate delineation...

Davide Caramella, MD, Fabio Paolicchi, RT, Giuseppe Imbarlina ENG, Carolina Marini, MD, Chiara Sottocornola, MPE University Hospital of Pisa - AOUP - University of Pisa We gratefully acknowledge the following contributors to this study: • Giacomo Aringhieri, MD, for his radiological expertise and for his contribution in data interpretation. • Ruggero Dell’Osso, for his IT support. • Alessia Parolini, RT, for her help in data collection.

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