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In-plane visibility of lesions using breast tomosynthesis and digital mammography

Timberg, Pontus LU ; Bath, M. ; Andersson, Ingvar LU ; Mattsson, S. ; Tingberg, A. and Ruschin, M. (2010) In Medical Physics 37(11). p.5618-5626
Abstract
Purpose: The purpose of this work was to evaluate the visibility of simulated lesions in 2D digital mammography (DM) and breast tomosynthesis (BT) images of patients. Methods: Images of the same women were acquired on both a DM system (Mammomat Novation, Siemens Healthcare, Erlangen, Germany) and a BT prototype system adapted from the same type of DM system. Using the geometrical properties of the two systems, simulated lesions were projected and added to each DM image as well as to each BT projection image prior to 3D reconstruction. The same beam quality and approximately the same total absorbed dose to the glandular tissue were used for each breast image acquisition on the two systems. A series of four-alternative forced choice human... (More)
Purpose: The purpose of this work was to evaluate the visibility of simulated lesions in 2D digital mammography (DM) and breast tomosynthesis (BT) images of patients. Methods: Images of the same women were acquired on both a DM system (Mammomat Novation, Siemens Healthcare, Erlangen, Germany) and a BT prototype system adapted from the same type of DM system. Using the geometrical properties of the two systems, simulated lesions were projected and added to each DM image as well as to each BT projection image prior to 3D reconstruction. The same beam quality and approximately the same total absorbed dose to the glandular tissue were used for each breast image acquisition on the two systems. A series of four-alternative forced choice human observer experiments was conducted for each of five simulated lesion diameters: 0.2, 1, 3, 8, and 25 mm. An additional experiment was conducted for the 0.2 mm lesion in BT only at twice the dose level (BT2x). Threshold signal was defined as the lesion signal intensity required for a detectability index (d') of 2.5. Four medical physicists participated in all experiments. One experiment, consisting of 60 cases, was conducted per test condition (i.e., lesion size and signal combination). Results: For the smallest lesions (0.2 mm), the threshold signal for DM was 21% lower than for BT at equivalent dose levels, and BT2x was 26% lower than DM. For the lesions larger than 1 mm, the threshold signal increased linearly (in log space) with the lesion diameter for both DM and BT, with DM requiring around twice the signal as BT. The difference in the threshold signal between BT and DM at each lesion size was statistically significant, except for the 0.2 mm lesion between BT2x and DM. Conclusions: The results of this study indicate that low-signal lesions larger than 1.0 mm may be more visible in BT compared to DM, whereas 0.2 mm lesions may be better visualized with DM compared to BT, when compared at equal dose. (C) 2010 American Association of Physicists in Medicine. [DOI: 10.1118/1.3488899] (Less)
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author
; ; ; ; and
organization
publishing date
type
Contribution to journal
publication status
published
subject
keywords
detection, signal, forced-choice, digital mammography, breast tomosynthesis, observer performance
in
Medical Physics
volume
37
issue
11
pages
5618 - 5626
publisher
American Association of Physicists in Medicine
external identifiers
  • wos:000283747600007
  • scopus:77953340413
  • pmid:21158273
ISSN
0094-2405
DOI
10.1118/1.3488899
language
English
LU publication?
yes
id
0a0d0cea-43ee-454a-b099-9ef4822ceda2 (old id 1753097)
date added to LUP
2016-04-01 14:35:26
date last changed
2022-03-06 20:08:05
@article{0a0d0cea-43ee-454a-b099-9ef4822ceda2,
  abstract     = {{Purpose: The purpose of this work was to evaluate the visibility of simulated lesions in 2D digital mammography (DM) and breast tomosynthesis (BT) images of patients. Methods: Images of the same women were acquired on both a DM system (Mammomat Novation, Siemens Healthcare, Erlangen, Germany) and a BT prototype system adapted from the same type of DM system. Using the geometrical properties of the two systems, simulated lesions were projected and added to each DM image as well as to each BT projection image prior to 3D reconstruction. The same beam quality and approximately the same total absorbed dose to the glandular tissue were used for each breast image acquisition on the two systems. A series of four-alternative forced choice human observer experiments was conducted for each of five simulated lesion diameters: 0.2, 1, 3, 8, and 25 mm. An additional experiment was conducted for the 0.2 mm lesion in BT only at twice the dose level (BT2x). Threshold signal was defined as the lesion signal intensity required for a detectability index (d') of 2.5. Four medical physicists participated in all experiments. One experiment, consisting of 60 cases, was conducted per test condition (i.e., lesion size and signal combination). Results: For the smallest lesions (0.2 mm), the threshold signal for DM was 21% lower than for BT at equivalent dose levels, and BT2x was 26% lower than DM. For the lesions larger than 1 mm, the threshold signal increased linearly (in log space) with the lesion diameter for both DM and BT, with DM requiring around twice the signal as BT. The difference in the threshold signal between BT and DM at each lesion size was statistically significant, except for the 0.2 mm lesion between BT2x and DM. Conclusions: The results of this study indicate that low-signal lesions larger than 1.0 mm may be more visible in BT compared to DM, whereas 0.2 mm lesions may be better visualized with DM compared to BT, when compared at equal dose. (C) 2010 American Association of Physicists in Medicine. [DOI: 10.1118/1.3488899]}},
  author       = {{Timberg, Pontus and Bath, M. and Andersson, Ingvar and Mattsson, S. and Tingberg, A. and Ruschin, M.}},
  issn         = {{0094-2405}},
  keywords     = {{detection; signal; forced-choice; digital mammography; breast tomosynthesis; observer performance}},
  language     = {{eng}},
  number       = {{11}},
  pages        = {{5618--5626}},
  publisher    = {{American Association of Physicists in Medicine}},
  series       = {{Medical Physics}},
  title        = {{In-plane visibility of lesions using breast tomosynthesis and digital mammography}},
  url          = {{http://dx.doi.org/10.1118/1.3488899}},
  doi          = {{10.1118/1.3488899}},
  volume       = {{37}},
  year         = {{2010}},
}