#FitnessFirst

It is easy to ignore the possibility of an illness when you are apparently healthy or keeping well seemingly. Moreover, you probably don’t want to worry about ailments unless you experience a symptom that you cannot ignore. It is natural to feel that way. However, given how easily different diseases and conditions are affecting people of all ages these days, going for regular health screening and being cautious is advisable. After all, prevention is better than cure.

Now, screening tests are often deemed concerning and you might be afraid of what the results might show. But that is not a good enough reason to avoid them. Remember that there are many advantages of health screening and they can give you an early warning about potential health issues. For example, studies show that breast cancer screening through mammography offers an impressive 41% reduction in women’s mortality in the following 10 years. We don’t need to tell you how helpful that is, right?

Also, the best part about health screening is that it allows early treatment, which reduces the possibility of a disease aggravating. To know more about the importance of screening test for our health, read on.

What is health screening?

Let’s start with the basics. Exactly what is health screening and when does the physician recommend it? A screening test is a kind of test done before you show any symptoms of a disease. It is conducted with the goal of detecting possible ailments or to find out if you are at risk of a certain disease.

Health screening tests are not a diagnostic tool to be exact, but they are used extensively by physicians to determine if you should be undergoing more specific tests to check if you have a particular ailment or if you are at a higher risk of contracting it.

It also makes sense to go for health screening tests at periodic intervals because the chance of being at risk of a certain disease despite screening is a small one. In other words, health screening protects you against potential risks that may otherwise lead to complications.

The importance of screening test for your health is greater when:

• You have a family history of specific medical conditions
• You cross a certain age
• Your lifestyle increases your health risks
• You have a medical history that increases your risk of getting specific diseases

Types of screening tests

If you have never been asked to go for a health screening test, you may not be aware of what they are generally like. There are many types of screening tests, and each one may need to be done with its own distinctive periodicity. Some types of screening tests, such as breast cancer screening, might be recommended after a certain age, for instance.

Even a physical exam by your doctor is a simple screening test example. The most common screening tests recommended by doctors are for:

• Diabetes
• High blood pressure
• Excess cholesterol
• Breast cancer in women
• Colorectal cancer
• Cervical cancer in women
• Obesity
• Lung health
• Liver health
• Kidney health
• Prostate cancer in men
• Osteoporosis

10 reasons why health screening is important

There are several reasons that help establish the importance of health screening. In general, the following are the most significant among the benefits of screening tests because they act as a guide for treatment.

1. Identifies underlying issues: One of the main advantages of health screening is that it allows you to spot when there is an underlying problem, one that has not yet manifested itself in the form of symptoms. There may be situations where you feel perfectly healthy and have not been experiencing any changes, but there may be something wrong with your physiology at a very deep level. You probably haven’t realized it or felt it yet. Hence, the importance of screening test lies in its ability to pinpoint such ‘invisible’ health issues.
2. Helps in early detection: Among the main benefits of screening tests is their usefulness in detecting certain conditions at early stages. When a condition is detected early, treatment can be started early too. This results in better, more positive outcomes, improving your chances of a full and quick recovery. Remember that early detection plays a significant role in reducing mortality and morbidity rates, which means that health screening may actually give you a new lease of life with a serious ailment.
3. Relieves anxiety: Especially in case of hereditary diseases that pass on from one generation of the family to the next, you might be highly anxious to know if you have the disease or not. This anxiety itself might lead to a slew of stress-related problems. The importance of screening test in such cases lies in the reassurance it can give you, so that you can stop worrying about a hereditary problem that you are not affected with. Early screening allows you to live a stress-free, healthy life, where you can pursue your dreams to the fullest.
4. Helps avoid unnecessary precautions: Often, you might hear so much about a specific ailment that you might take extra precautions to avert it, even going to the extent of changing your lifestyle or restricting it severely. However, that might not be necessary at all. So, one of the significant benefits of screening tests is that you can eliminate the possibility of such ailments so that you can stop taking unnecessary precautions that curtail your freedom.
5. Puts you in control: It becomes challenging to fight a disease when it has taken a strong hold of your system. Or you might end up needing serious medical intervention. However, when the same disease is detected at a very early stage, thanks to health screening, it enables you to get treatment on time and recover fast. So, in effect, one of the main advantages of health screening is that it gives you better control over your body and health.
6. Allows focus on crucial areas: A screening test throws light on specific health hazards that you are at risk of and it also tells the doctor what areas they need not be worrying about. This narrowing down of the potential risk areas allows the physician to work without distraction and focus where it is needed the most.
7. Catches the signs before complications: When it comes to health and wellbeing, you surely want to avoid emergency situations. And the simplest way to do that is by scheduling regular screening tests as suggested by the doctor. So, if you are wondering “why is health screening important”, one of the main reasons is because it identifies emerging issues on time before they lead to complications requiring emergency treatment.
8. Ensures early intervention and less invasive treatment: While this is not always true for all ailments, it does hold good for most. Be it simple health hazards, say high cholesterol, or more serious problems like colon cancer, early identification means the disease can be managed with simpler, less invasive treatment methods.
9. Helps you to take preventive care: As you age, your body’s defences also begin to break down. This is the reason why it is important to take better care of yourself when you get older. So, why is health screening important in this regard? It helps you to take preventive care and avert the possibility of common but dreaded diseases. For example, if your screening shows that your cholesterol levels are elevated, you can immediately start making changes to your diet and exercise regime, to prevent cardiovascular complications later.
10. Pinpoints ailments that are unexpected: You already know that lung cancer is a significant risk for smokers, but did you know that 10- 15% of non- smokers too suffer from this dreaded disease? What this data indicates is that even when you have no family history and no lifestyle factors contributing to a disease, it may still affect you. And the importance of screening tests lies in their ability to warn you of such diseases that may otherwise blindside you.

To conclude

Being healthy is the key to being happy, and the importance of screening test for our health cannot be emphasised enough. Apart from a number of advantages that it has to offer, as you can see, the importance of screening test lies in the fact that it gives you a stress-free life where you have the freedom to pursue your career and dreams without being bogged down by health concerns. With regular health screening, you can give yourself a better and healthier life.

Did you know that about 2.3 million women around the world were diagnosed with breast cancer in 2020? And 685,000 of them could not survive. In India, as well as the rest of the world, Breast cancer is the most common type of cancer observed in women. Moreover, data suggests it to be more common in metropolitan cities. Evidently, breast cancer is a disease that needs to be taken extremely seriously.

Early detection is especially the key to fighting this problem effectively. And when it comes to diagnosis, mammography is the best screening tool at present to detect breast cancer along with a sonomammogram and a doctor’s examination. However, there are two main types available these days – conventional and digital. In conventional mammography, films are used to store and read the mammograms. And in digital mammography, a computer is used to store and read the mammograms, which makes it easier to study the data by magnifying or enhancing the same and arrive at more accurate conclusions. Naturally, digital mammography has a distinctive edge over the conventional method.

In fact, since the year 2007, digital mammography has been the most recommended tool to screen for breast cancer. This method turned out to be a technological advancement over film screen mammography as it improved the efficacy and accuracy of diagnosis quite significantly. Statistical studies also indicate that digital mammography may be better in terms of being able to predict cancers.

Moreover, it has been found that 3D digital mammography works better for younger women who are in the under-50 age group. This way, the early detection of tumours or prediction of cancer risk becomes possible, which improves treatment outcomes too. Read on to know everything about digital mammography.

Why is digital mammography recommended?

When your physician recommends that you get a mammogram, they expect to derive certain findings and eliminate certain risks. When the mammogram is being read by the radiologist, they will be on the lookout for any abnormalities that may indicate a disease or injury. Typically, the radiologist looking at your digital mammography report will be watching for:

● Calcifications: If you see white spots on your digital mammography report, they could be little deposits of calcium that have built up over time. These deposits build within your breast tissues. These could be of two kinds:

o Macrocalcification: These are relatively large deposits in the breast tissue that may arise due to the ageing of arteries or inflammation. They could also be the result of some old injuries. In general, macrocalcification spots are not investigated further because they do not indicate a cancerous condition. In women who are older, that is, above 50, these macro-calcifications are quite a common phenomenon.

o Microcalcification: These are smaller white spots that can be spotted by digital mammography specialists to screen for breast cancer. While microcalcifications do not confirm cancerous growth, they are taken more seriously than macrocalcifications. Experienced digital mammography specialists study the shape and position of these spots and their proximity to tissue masses to measure the potential risk of cancer. In specific cases, depending on the pattern or appearance of the microcalcification spots, the physician may recommend a biopsy to identify if the growth is cancerous.

● Masses: Apart from calcifications, digital mammography also enables the identification of masses, which are areas of abnormal tissue in the breast. Typically, these masses, when examined by digital mammography specialists, show features that set them apart from normal breast tissue. While masses can be just fluid filled pockets or solid tumours, they can also be cancerous, which is when digital mammography screening helps in early identification and diagnosis.

● Distortions: A tricky one to spot, distortions can arise simply from the positioning of the breast in the digital mammography machine. Such distortions also arise from some previous injuries to the breast region or from previous procedures that were done. However, this is also a possible sign of cancer, so the digital mammography screening again helps in early detection and diagnosis.

● Asymmetry: When the digital mammography screening shows up white patches that are quite unlike the surrounding healthy breast tissue, the physician may suggest further tests to eliminate cancerous growth. There are various kinds of asymmetries that may be caused by different reasons.

● Density: Digital mammography is also a measure of breast density. This is relevant because the greater the density, the higher the risk of cancer. Breast density measures the glandular/fibrous tissue in the breast relative to the fatty tissue. Higher breast density is perfectly normal, but it does place one at a slightly elevated risk of cancer, which means that more frequent checks might be necessary.

If your doctor has asked you to get digital mammography done periodically, then the reports will usually be compared with previous ones. The radiologist will try to evaluate if any changes can be seen since the last time you had a mammogram done. Their study can show up any new developments or further changes in an existing mass or spot that was evident in previous reports.

What is full field digital mammography?

Before we get into what a full field digital mammography or FFDM is, let’s understand what a mammogram is. Simply put, a mammogram is nothing but a low dose X-ray that is interpreted by radiologists to identify any changes in the tissue in the breast region. The X- ray lets the radiologist look inside the breast. The mammography X-ray is called mammogram.

Digital mammography is also called full field digital mammography, and this is a procedure where instead of the traditional X- ray film, you have solid state detectors transposing the X- rays into electrical signals. These signals recreate images of the breast, which can be further studied on a computer screen. You can also get an image output on special film. Later, Computer Aided Design or CAD can ease the analysis of breast tissues more accurately and efficiently using the digital mammography output. The CAD system clearly outlines areas of concern for the physician to further study, thus reducing the human error factor.

3D digital mammography

Also known as Tomosynthesis, 3D digital mammography is an advancement in digital mammography that gives 2D and 3D outputs. This kind of output makes it easier to spot anomalies that may be early cancers or have the potential to turn into cancer. In a 3D digital mammography, the images of the breast are given in 1-millimetre thick segments so the radiologist can study the entire breast in detail, missing nothing out.

How to prepare for your digital mammography appointment?

● Tender breasts may make digital mammography a more uncomfortable procedure than it has to be. Choose a time of the month when your breasts are not tender and book your appointment then. Usually, this is right after your periods.

● The radiologist will ask for previous mammograms to do a comparative analysis, so take these reports and images with you.

● Do not use any kind of cream, lotion, fragrance or even talc under your arms or over your breasts when you go for your appointment. Avoid deodorants and anti- perspirants too. These can distort the mammogram.

● You will be asked to remove any jewellery you are wearing above your waist, such as chains, so, if you can, leave them at home.

● You will be given a gown at the testing facility that you need to wear instead of the clothing that covers your upper half.

● The technician will ask you to position yourself before the digital mammography machine in such a way that your breasts can be placed on the given platform one at a time.

● A plastic plate that is fixed above is pressed down upon your breast to flatten it against the platform so the tissues are spread out and can be captured clearly by the digital mammography machine. This can cause discomfort or even pain. If it is too painful, tell the technician.

● The digital mammography machine moves from side to side to get images from all sides. To facilitate the imaging, you will be asked to hold your breath for a few moments and keep completely still.

● The process may be repeated until images have been taken from all directions and then the same is done for the other breast.

Typically, digital mammography takes around 20 minutes to complete. Inform the technician if you have breast implants or if you are breastfeeding. If you can’t stand still for more than a few minutes, do let the technician know beforehand so they can arrange for a cane or some other support for the duration.

Digital mammography cost in India

Digital mammography test prices can vary quite substantially in India depending on the location and the lab where you get it done. It is important for you to find a reputed lab that has good facilities and expert technicians, so that you can improve the accuracy of the imaging and reduce the risk of being called back for a second try.

Costs vary from city to city and it may range from Rs 3000 to Rs 8000 and upwards depending on where you live and which lab you use. There are options for single breast mammography as well, which will halve your digital mammography cost, but may not comprehensively rule out breast cancer risk.

It is a good idea to check with your physician about what you need and ask about reliable labs where the imaging can be done quickly and accurately with as little discomfort as possible. If you have medical insurance, check with the insurer beforehand if this procedure is covered and if they have specific labs allocated for it.

Statistics reveal that breast cancer is a major health concern in India, especially in metro cities. The National Cancer Registry Programme (NCRP) estimates that we may see 15.7 lakh cancer cases by the year 2025. The good news is that about a third of these cancers can be prevented by taking simple precautions. There are, however, causes of cancer that are not quite in your hands. The best thing is for you to periodically consult with your physician and follow their advice on getting digital mammography done on a regular basis, so that you can ensure early detection and receive treatment for good outcomes.