Image quality and radiation dose assessment of a digital mammography system

Abstract

Image quality and radiation dose of a direct amorphous selenium digital mammography system were considered in terms of contrast to noise ratio (CNR) and average glandular dose (AGD). They were measured for various qualities and breast phantom thicknesses with different types of breast tissue composition to determine optimal radiation quality and dose. Three sets of breast tissue equivalent slabs (30%:70%, 50%:50% and 70%:30% glandular-adipose) with thickness of 2 cm to 7 cm and 0.2 mm aluminum foil were used to provide certain CNR. Two different combinations of anode/ilter material and a wide range of tube voltages were employed for each phantom thickness. Phantom images with grid were acquired using automatic exposure control (AEC) mode for each thickness. Phantom images without grid were also obtained in manual exposure mode by selecting the same anode/filter combination and kVp as the image obtained with grid at the same thickness, but varying mAs of 10 to 200 mAs. Optimization indicated that relatively high energy beam qualities should be used with a greater dose to compensate for lower energy x-rays. The results also indicate that current AEC setting for a fixed detector is not optimal.