WEST HARTFORD, Conn. -- Digital technology is improving mammograms by using less radiation and providing a better look at tissue.

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Technology Improves Mammograms

Digital technology generates images within seconds. It allows technicians to manipulate the images while the patient remains in position, reducing the need for additional views.

"The digital mammography has many more sensors than analog mammogram, so we get a much higher resolution picture of tissues that we didn't see in the past," said Dr. David Gruen of Norwalk Radiology.

Gruen said digital imagery provides a better picture of the entire breast, not just the central breast tissue.

By linking the digital image to computer-aided detection (CAD), a sensitive and sophisticated computer program serves as a second pair of eyes.

"Some cancers are very, very subtle," Gruen said. "What we want to do is pick those cancers up this year before those cancers become not so subtle in two to three years. CAD improves the accuracy by 20 percent."

Exams are completed in about half the time of standard mammograms. The CAD technology might take more time to pinpoint potential problems, but results usually are available within a day or two.

Nine out of 10 insurance companies cover digital mammograms.