Does the use of self-compression in mammography affect compression force, breast thickness, and mean glandular dose?

The purpose of the study was to investigate whether the use of self-compression in craniocaudal (CC) projection has an effect on compression force, breast thickness, radiation dose and image quality compared to the standard mammographic procedure.

The study was conducted on 200 female patients that were referred for mammographic imaging. Patients were randomly divided into two equal groups. In the first group, self-compression was performed on the right breast and in the second group on the left breast. The data about compression force (N), breast thickness (mm), and mean glandular dose (MGD; mGy) were collected. In addition, the differences in the mentioned variables according to the side of self-compression were compared. All mammographic images were evaluated by two experienced radiologists according to the criteria established by the European Commission.

The use of self-compression resulted in a significant increase in compression force by 21.7 % (19.8 N) and a significant reduction of breast thickness by 5% (2.43 mm) and MGD by 6.3 % (0.09 mGy), respectively. There were no statistically significant differences based on the self-compression side, and no differences were observed in image quality assessment.

This study demonstrates that the imaging protocol in mammography of the CC projection can be adopted by the use of self-compression in order to achieve better results.