Volpara Solutions’ Quantitative Breast Imaging Tools Support 11 Breast Screening Studies Presented at ECR
VIENNA, February 26, 2019 – Volpara Solutions Ltd will launch a new version of the Volpara®Live!™ system at the European Congress of Radiology (ECR) meeting, February 27 to March 3, 2019 (Expo Hall X1, Booth 108). VolparaLive! is mammography’s first real-time decision support system available at the point of care.
VolparaLive! automatically analyses patient positioning and compression for each image and provides real-time feedback to radiographers. With this data, they can confirm that images are of high quality before the patient leaves the room, which helps optimise productivity, reduce costs through the reduction of retakes, and increase staff effectiveness.
In addition, Volpara’s quantitative breast imaging clinical applications, Volpara®Density™ and Volpara®Dose™, will be highlighted in 11 abstracts and educational sessions accepted for presentation at the ECR, which suggest new best practices in breast cancer screening. Among the ground-breaking research being presented include:
- “Additional MRI screening in women with extremely dense breasts: primary outcome of the first round of the randomised DENSE trial.” Researchers will present the initial results of the ongoing DENSE (Dense tissue and Early breast Neoplasm ScrEening) trial, one of the largest randomized controlled trials of breast cancer screening. The trial investigates the added value of MRI for screening of women aged 50–75 with extremely dense breasts as assessed by VolparaDensity.
- “Reproducibility and measurement of error in automated breast density assessment.” Using data collected from the PROCAS study, this analysis demonstrates that VolparaDensity gives reproducible measures of percentage volumetric breast density (VBD%). Results showed good to excellent repeatability of VBD% between recurrent measurements.
- “Effect of different reading protocols on the association between mammographic sensitivity and volumetric breast density.” Results showed a negative linear relationship between VBD% and sensitivity for both single- and double-reading protocols. This suggests that VBD% could be used to triage women to density-appropriate reading protocols with the aim to maximize screening sensitivity.
- “Low-dose breast density assessment.” This poster demonstrates that robust VBD% measurement can be made from mammographic images acquired at less than 10% of conventional dose, opening the way for practical density and associated risk assessment at an earlier age. Volumetric breast density was measured on paired mammograms and tomosynthesis views acquired in a single compression from 141,753 women, representing more than 1.1 million images from multiple vendors. A significant correlation of 0.92 between VBD from mammograms and tomosynthesis views with a mean difference of −0.13% VBD was found, indicating excellent agreement between the density measured from each image type.
- “Patient-specific mammographic dose in a cohort of 1 million women: implications for population dose assessment.” The European Council Directive 2013/59/Euratom makes new emphasis on dose estimates that account for patient-specific characteristics. This poster compares manufacturer-reported dose and VolparaDose calculated for mammography and breast tomosynthesis exams from 1 million women. VolparaDose and Organ Dose from the DICOM header were determined from 2.28 million mammograms and 2.76 million tomosynthesis views and the dose at reference compressed thicknesses were compared to EUREF limiting values. VolparaDose was greater than Organ Dose on average and resulted in a large number of images with doses higher than EUREF Acceptable and Achievable limits (up to 53% of tomosynthesis images of breasts at 21 mm compressed thickness), suggesting a need to integrate patient-specific data in dose surveys used to generate reference limits.
Volpara will also be showcasing its Volpara®Enterprise™ software, the only solution currently available that provides comprehensive assessment of breast density, patient-specific dose and image quality on every mammography or tomosynthesis study, including patient positioning and compression, which are widely viewed as the causes of most clinical image deficiencies and are associated with delayed detection of breast cancer.
About Volpara Solutions
Founded with the goal of helping radiologists give women the most accurate information possible regarding their breast health, Volpara Solutions is the wholly owned sales and marketing arm of Volpara Health Technologies Limited of New Zealand. Available in most markets where breast cancer screening is commonplace, VolparaDensity provides an objective volumetric measure of breast density from both digital mammography and tomosynthesis data. VolparaEnterprise is a suite of quantitative breast imaging tools for personalized measurements of density, patient-specific x ray dose, breast compression, breast positioning, and other factors designed to provide critical insight for breast imaging workflow. VolparaLive! provides radiographers with a real-time decision support at the point of care to assess image quality.
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Media Contact:
Chris K. Joseph
Volpara Solutions
+1 510/435-4031
chris.joseph@volparasolutions.com
