BREAST X-RAY LOSS ANGERS PATIENTS.

Byline: Orith Goldberg Staff Writer

A cleaning crew at the Northridge Diagnostic Center apparently threw away as many as 100 mammograms last year, a center official said.

The incident is disturbing to some women because doctors can compare one mammogram to another to determine if something has changed and is wrong.

``What if I had breast cancer and (doctors) had nothing to compare (the recent mammograms) to?'' asked Gayle Runyan, 53, of Granada Hills, who said her mammograms are among the missing. ``I'm thinking of all of these ladies who didn't even know these mammograms are missing.''

Norman Hames, the chief operating officer of Radnet Management Inc., which runs the center, said that a cleaning crew accidentally threw away anywhere from three to five months' worth of mammograms in November or December.

``The film boxes were neatly organized by patient number and patient identification and the box looks like an organized record-keeping box and for some reason, they threw them away,`` Hames said. ``It's a terrible mistake.''

He said letters have gone out to some of the women whose mammograms were lost and their doctors, but he said a crew of employees is still working to figure out how many patients were affected. He said the incident could cost the company thousands of dollars.

Patients, though, were angered by the incident.

``I was in shock,'' said Cheryl von Chmielewski, 54, of Chatsworth. She said she lost 10 years of records and found out when her specialist called about the missing mammograms from her file. ``I couldn't believe it. ...

``We go to these women's centers because we trust them and now, that's all down the tubes.''

Hames said the doctors' records from the mammogram are still on computer files. He said the center will offer free baseline mammograms to those whose records are missing.

Anyone concerned about their mammogram records is asked to contact the Northridge Diagnostic Center at [phone].