3D phantom for image quality assessment of mammography systems

Phys Med Biol. 2023 Sep 21. doi: 10.1088/1361-6560/acfc10. Online ahead of print.ABSTRACTOBJECTIVE: To present an innovative approach for the design of a 3D mammographic phantom for medical equipment quality assessment, estimation of the glandular tissue percentage in the patient's breast, and emulation of microcalcification ($\mu$C) breast lesions.APPROACH: Contrast-to noise ratio (CNR) measurements, as well as spatial resolution and intensity-to-glandularity calibrations under mammography conditions were performed to assess the effectiveness of the phantom. CNR measurements were applied to different groups of calcium hydroxyapatite (HA) and aluminum oxide (AO) $\mu$Cs ranging from 200 $\mu$m to 600 $\mu$m. Spatial resolution was characterized using an aluminum plate contained in the phantom and standard linear figures of merit, such as the line spread function (LSF) and modulation transfer function (MTF). The intensity-to-glandularity calibration was developed using an X-ray attenuation matrix within the phantom to estimate the glandular tissue percentage in a breast with a compressed thickness of 4 cm.MAIN RESULTS: For the prototype studied, the minimum confidence level for detecting HA $\mu$Cs is 95.4\%, while for AO $\mu$Cs is above 68.3\%. It was also possible to determine that the MTF of the commercial mammography machine used for this study at the Nyquist frequency is 41\%. Additionally, a one-to-one intensity-to-glandularity calibration was obtained and verified with...
Source: Physics in Medicine and Biology - Category: Physics Authors: Source Type: research