MRI Guided Biopsy by Vacuum with Clip

suesue777

I have been being watched very closely for a couple months now.  After numerous 3D mammos and ultrasounds (I have tons of cysts) my breast surgeon sent me for a MRI with dye.

The results came back with the following: There is a new 0.6 x 1 x 0.6 cm focal heterogeneous non-mass enhancement in
the right breast

In addition it states: Background parenchymal enhancement is moderate bilaterally. The tissue of
both breasts is heterogeneously dense.  

I will be 49 in March - had an abdominal hysterectomy when I was 37.  My breasts are very dense and filled with cysts.  That is why they began watching me to begin with.

The radiologist gave me a birads of 4a but said I needed the mri guided biopsy by vacuum with clip ASAP.

Does this sound familiar to anyone?  Why are they putting a clip in?  I just found this out on Dec. 28th.  My surgeon wanted the biopsy done the next day but Duke's first appointment was for this Friday, Jan. 5th.

MTwoman

Sorry that you're here worried about your breast health. The clip is to insure that they are sampling the correct place. A BIRADS 4a score means "low suspicion of malignancy" and the positive predictive value (the likelihood that you will get a bc diagnosis, based on the characteristics of your finding) is quite low at 13%. Read more about that scoring system here: http://breast-cancer.ca/bi-rads/

Best of luck!

Ibis

I recently had an MRI guided biopsy. From my understanding, the clip is placed in the questionable area so that it will be visible to a surgeon in case you need surgery. If the biopsy is negative, the clip stays in place and doesn't cause problems. I was very nervous, but the biopsy wasn't as bad as I anticipated. I felt the numbing injection. No pain after that. I did hear drilling sounds which was the vacuum assist. Oh, I did ask for Ativan prior to the biopsy and they gave me Ativa to put under my tongue

Moderators

This may also help you to better understand the procedure, uesue777.

http://www.breastcancer.org/symptoms/testing/types...