While the laws vary, in general, they require that the mammography reports sent to women after a mammogram must inform the patient if she has dense breasts, and to suggest following up with her doctor.

Dense breast tissue appears white on a mammogram, which can mask cancer during screenings. Women with dense breasts are also thought to be at a higher risk of disease.


According to Are You Dense, an advocacy group that pushes for the laws, about 40 percent of women have dense breasts.

"I think that what's impacting the most, from what we've seen in Connecticut, is a major growth in supplemental breast ultrasound procedures being done," Aranibar said.

In the report, Frost & Sullivan said one Connecticut study found that after the density law went into effect, half of the 77,000 women informed of their breast density went in for a supplemental ultrasound scan. Also, new technologies are becoming more important. Last fall, U-Systems' automated breast ultrasound system became the first such product approved by the Food and Drug Administration to be used as an adjunct for screening women with dense breasts. (The company was bought by GE for an undisclosed amount in November.)

Figuring out the current market for breast ultrasound is tricky, however, as ultrasound is typically shared between departments. But Aranibar estimates that the market for ultrasounds sold with probes that enable breast imaging amounted to some $300 million in 2011.

He expects it to grow at a rate of 6.1 percent from 2011 to 2016, slightly outpacing X-ray mammography at 5.9 CAGR and even breast MRI, also a supplemental technique, at 5.1 percent.

"It's really an area that's gaining a lot of interest," he said.



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