Pitfalls in mammography: demonstrating deep lesions.

Abstract

The difficulty of demonstrating lesions near the chest wall is one source of error in mammography. A mediolateral xeroradiograph of the breast which images the chest wall was added to the routine mediolateral and cephalocaudal film-screen projections to minimize this problem. In one case, a posterior breast lesion was detected solely on the xeroradiograph. However, three tumors were demonstrated on the film-screen mediolateral view but not on the chest wall xeroradiographic view. Using the two mediolateral views results in increased detection of malignancies in the posterior mammary tissues.