Your Guide to Medical Imaging Equipment

Hologic produces the most popular family of mammography systems on the market today. They've earned this with a commitment to technological advancement and reliability in performance. Still, like any other digital mammo system from any other manufacturer, Hologic Selenia and Dimensions units have X-ray tubes that will eventually fail.

To help prepare you for that eventuality, we'll share with you what to look for as your tube ages, as well as what to expect when the time for a new tube finally comes.

Eventually, every X-ray tube gives up the ghost, even the tube on your trusty mammography system. If you are you looking to replace the tube on your Hologic Selenia or Selenia Dimensions, you might be wondering what you can expect to pay and how long it will be before you have to do it again. Great questions! Here we'll share with you the typical life expectancy and replacement cost for Hologic Selenia tubes.

For accuracy, fewer recalls, and clarity in dense breast tissue, 3D mammography is the top of the line. However, those who are looking for top-tier technology like this won't find just one option when they take to the market to find their next system. A number of offerings from Hologic, GE, Siemens, Fuji, and others are available either new or on the secondary market.

To help buyers looking for 3D mammo narrow down their options, we'll compare two options they're likely to come across in their search: the Dimensions 3D from Hologic and the Pristina from GE.

At present, two of the more prominent players in digital mammography are GE and Hologic. If you're in the market for a digital mammo system, you won't get very far into your product homework before seeing both of these names surface.

For those of you that are considering the secondary market for a late-model, large-detector mammo unit, the latest used systems that you're likely to find from these manufacturers are the Senographe Essential from GE and the Selenia from Hologic. To help you learn more, we've compiled a side-by-side comparison of some of the key features of these systems.

When GE developed their Senographe 2000D mammography system and their XR/d X-ray room, they partnered with Silicon Valley's Sun Microsystems (acquired in 2010 by Oracle) to provide workstations for both machines. The particular workstation in both of these cases was the Sun Ultra 10.

The Ultra 10 is a reliable platform but, just like any computer slogging through the day-in/day-out of a crowded patient schedule, there comes a point where a replacement will be necessary. 

Below, we'll break down the different types of Ultra 10 workstations, what causes them to fail, and the solution when you experience workstation failure on your 2000D or XR/d.