That’s what happened recently when a colleague visited Washington Radiology, a practice with more than a dozen locations in Washington, D.C., Maryland, and Virginia.
For $119, she was told, the practice would use artificial intelligence software to analyze her mammogram for calcification in the arteries of her breasts, which could indicate she’s at risk for cardiovascular disease.
Washington Radiology is one of a number of practices nationwide offering this type of screening. Here’s what to know about the screening and whether research supports it.
Although breast X-rays are typically used to detect and diagnose breast cancer, the pictures also indicate whether the arteries in the breast have calcifications, which show up as parallel white lines on the film. Calcifications, which are considered “incidental” findings unrelated to breast cancer, may be associated with someone’s heart disease risk. They’ve been visible on images for decades, and some radiologists have routinely noted them in their reports. But the information hasn’t typically been passed on to patients.
Now some practices make the results available to patients — sometimes for a fee.
Washington Radiology didn’t respond to interview requests, but in a video on its website describing the practice’s “Mammo+Heart” AI screening, Islamiat Ego-Osuala, a breast imaging radiologist there, said, “If the past few decades has taught us anything about the field of radiology, it is that the sky’s the limit. The possibilities are endless.”
Some imaging experts question that rosy assessment as it relates to screening for breast arterial calcification to gauge heart disease risk.
“What we’re seeing on the mammogram is calcification in the breast artery, but that’s not the same as the calcification in the coronary artery,” said Greg Sorensen, chief science officer at RadNet, which has nearly 400 imaging centers in eight states. RadNet doesn’t offer breast arterial calcification screening and has no plans to. “It doesn’t feel like it’s delivering value today,” Sorensen said.
(RadNet does offer patients an AI analysis of their mammograms to improve breast cancer detection. KFF Health News reported on that earlier this year.)