GILLIAN M. NEWSTEAD, MD: The technologist will take a history from the patient and inquire if the patient has noted any changes in her breast or if she's noted any lumps or any areas of particular discomfort. And that helps us direct the ultrasound to the area that we're concerned about.
And we -- to get ready for the ultrasound examination, we place some -- what we call "coupling gel," it's actually jelly, on the transducer itself, which sends and receives the sound. And on the skin of the breast in the area which we want to examine with ultrasound. The get is a coupling agent, and it allows the sound more easily to penetrate into the body.
The patient can look at the screen, the monitor, where we can view the breast and the images we're taking. And what's really nice about the breast ultrasound is the doctor and the technologists can actually see breast in real-time -- the breast tissue -- and then select the areas that look abnormal and take images of that particular area.
And then the radiologist will come and review the findings, usually scan the patient his or herself and take -- may or may not take additional images to confirm the impression that the technologists had. So we work very closely with our technologists.
[Doctor w/ patient]
GILLIAN M. NEWSTEAD, MD: Good morning, I'm Dr. Newstead, how are you?
PATIENT: Good morning.
GILLIAN M. NEWSTEAD, MD: Hi --
PATIENT: A little nervous, a little nervous.
GILLIAN M. NEWSTEAD, MD: Looks like you have a little cyst here, on your breast.
PATIENT: Yes.
