QCOSTARICA – At 62, doña Virgina will become the first insured on Monday to receive a mammogram at the Clínica Solón Núñez, in Hatillo.
The clinic, inaugurated this week, but opens to the public on Monday, will benefit some 27.000 women between 45 and 70 years of age and women under 45 who have risk factors, residents of Hatillo and Alajuelita.
A mammogram is an x-ray picture of the breast. It can be used to check for breast cancer in women who have no signs or symptoms of the disease. It can also be used if you have a lump or other sign of breast cancer.
Mammograms play a key role in early breast cancer detection and help decrease breast cancer deaths. During a mammogram, your breasts are compressed between two firm surfaces to spread out the breast tissue.
A screening mammogram is used to look for signs of breast cancer when you do not have any breast symptoms or problems. A mammogram can often detect cancer in its early stages, even before a lump can be felt, when treatment can be most successful.
Who invented the mammogram machine? Albert Solomon uses a conventional X-ray machine to produce images of 3,000 gross anatomic mastectomy specimens, observing black spots at the centers of breast carcinomas. Mammography, the resulting imaging, has been used since 1927 as a diagnostic tool in the early detection of breast cancer.
