Abstract
The aim of this study was to investigate the effect of dose on the detection of micro-calcification clusters in breast images using planar mammography and digital breast tomosynthesis (DBT). Planar and DBT images were created from mathematical models of breasts with and without inserted clusters of 5 identical calcifications. Regions of interest from the images were used in a series of 4-alternative forced choice human observer experiments using the clusters as targets. Three calcification diameters were used for each imaging condition. The threshold diameter required for micro-calcification detection was determined for a detection rate of 92.5 % at mean glandular doses of 1.25, 2.5, and 5 mGy. The measured threshold micro-calcification diameter was lower for planar mammography than for the DBT modality. The threshold micro-calcification diameter decreased with increasing dose for planar and DBT imaging. The image modality used had a larger effect on the threshold diameter than the dose change considered.
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Acknowledgements
This work is part of the OPTIMAM2 project and is supported by Cancer Research UK (grant, number: C30682/A17321). We thank Jack Miskell and Isobel Dodson for participating in this study. We are also grateful to the staff of Real Time Tomography for their help in using their software in this experiment.
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Mackenzie, A. et al. (2016). Effect of Dose on the Detection of Micro-Calcification Clusters for Planar and Tomosynthesis Imaging. In: Tingberg, A., Lång, K., Timberg, P. (eds) Breast Imaging. IWDM 2016. Lecture Notes in Computer Science(), vol 9699. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-41546-8_20
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-41546-8_20
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