My Grandmother had breast cancer, as well as another generation in my family. This technically means that the data suggests I may be genetically predisposed for breast cancer. Being part of the Magnetic Resonance world, I have helped setup and teach breast MRI all around the country, and some parts of the world. Last year, I discovered that some places (yes, in the US of A) are actually not doing breast MRI correctly, but instead doing it just so they can charge for it. I am appalled, and have reported them, but the MRI police have not done anything, oh wait, we don't have any....! So instead, I started a website trying to teach people what to look for in a good breast MRI exam, and to ask the questions that will steer them away from bad breast MRI.
Mammograms are federally regulated....breast MRI is not. There is no governing body that dictates that if you don't pass a quality assurance criteria, that you cannot do the exam. There is however, the American College of Radiology, which has published recommendations, but these are not mandated, nor are they quality controlled once the scanner passes inspection. Basically, the sites can run however they want, and all do.
If the questions come from the patient body, and the site cannot answer the questions the way they know they should, you should leave and go to a site that can answer all the questions with a "yes".
http://mri-breast.com/know-before-you-go/why-we-suggest-asking-them/
Tempe, AZ
