The Phase Imaging for Clinical Application with Silicon detector and Synchrotron radiatiOn (PICASSO) project is developing an "edge-on" silicon microstrip detector for mammography with synchrotron radiation. The sensor is equipped with a fast single-photon counting electronics based on the Mythen-II application-specific integrated circuit. A first prototype has been assembled and tested at the SYnchrotron Radiation for MEdical Physics (SYRMEP) beamline at Elettra in Trieste, Italy. The first results are presented in this study including evidence of high-rate single-photon counting with negligible losses up to 1.2×10⁶ incident photons per pixel per second; spatial resolution consistent with the pixel aperture (0.3 mm×0.05 mm); high-quality imaging of test-objects, obtained with a dose comparable to the one delivered in modern full-field digital mammographic systems.