Cascaded systems analysis of anatomic noise in digital mammography and dual-energy digital mammography.

Cascaded systems analysis of anatomic noise in digital mammography and dual-energy digital mammography.
Phys Med Biol. 2019 Aug 30;:
Authors: Tanguay J, Lalonde R, Bjarnason TA, Yang CJ
Abstract
In x-ray based imaging of the breast, contrast between fibroglandular (Fg) tissue and adipose (Ad) tissue is a source of anatomic noise. The goal of this work was to validate by simulation and experiment a mathematical framework for modelling the Fg component of anatomic noise in digital mammograpy (DM) and dual-energy (DE) DM. Our mathematical framework unifies and generalizes existing approaches. We compared mathematical predictions directly with empirical measurements of the anatomic noise power spectrum of the CIRS BR3D structured breast phantom using two clinical mammography systems and four beam qualities. Our simulation and experimental results showed agreement with mathematical predictions. As a demonstration of utility, we used our mathematical framework in a theoretical spectral optimization of DM for the task of detecting breast masses. Our theoretical optimization showed that the optimal tube voltage for DM may be higher than that based on predictions that do not account for anatomic noise, in agreement with recent theoretical findings. Additionally, our theoretical optimization predicts that filtering tungsten-anode x-ray spectra with rhodium has little influence on lesion detectability, in contrast with previous findings. The ma...

Source: Physics in Medicine and Biology - August 29, 2019 Category: Physics Authors: Tanguay J, Lalonde R, Bjarnason TA, Yang CJ Tags: Phys Med Biol Source Type: research