Fischer to show digital mammography work

Like competitors Bennett X-Ray and Lorad, Fischer of Denver isdeveloping a full-view digital mammography system. In its RSNAbooth, the company for the first time will display a working prototypeof its full-view digital system and will show patient images acquiredwith a prototype installed at Thomas Jefferson University Hospitalin Philadelphia.

Fischer's prototype has a design similar to a standard mammographyunit, but it features a detector array more closely resemblingthat used on CT scanners, according to Anthony DeCarolis, vicepresident of sales and marketing. The array enables cliniciansto perform 3-D imaging of the breast. The array has a matrix of1024 x 1024, which results in a high-resolution image that canimprove visualization of minute calcifications, DeCarolis said.

Fischer will also display an improved Mammotest prone stereotacticbiopsy table, as well as enhancements in its MammoVision CCD cameratechnology used with its digital spot-film device. Fischer isworking on a CCD camera design that can be moved from the Mammotesttable to an upright mammography system to make digitally guidedstereotactic exams more convenient and affordable.