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Portrait of Magnus Dustler. Photo

Magnus Dustler

Researcher

Portrait of Magnus Dustler. Photo

Monte Carlo simulation of breast tomosynthesis: visibility of microcalcifications at different acquisition schemes

Author

  • Hannie Petersson
  • Magnus Dustler
  • Anders Tingberg
  • Pontus Timberg

Summary, in English

Microcalcifications are one feature of interest in mammography and breast tomosynthesis (BT). To achieve optimal conditions for detection of microcalcifications in BT imaging, different acquisition geometries should be evaluated. The purpose of this work was to investigate the influence of acquisition schemes with different angular ranges, projection distributions and dose distributions on the visibility of microcalcifications in reconstructed BT volumes. Microcalcifications were inserted randomly in a high resolution software phantom and a simulation procedure was used to model a MAMMOMAT Inspiration BT system. The simulation procedure was based on analytical ray tracing to produce primary images, Monte Carlo to simulate scatter contributions and flatfield image acquisitions to model system characteristics. Image volumes were reconstructed using the novel method super-resolution reconstruction with statistical artifact reduction (SRSAR). For comparison purposes, the volume of the standard acquisition scheme (50 degrees angular range and uniform projection and dose distribution) was also reconstructed using standard filtered backprojection (FBP). To compare the visibility and depth resolution of the microcalcifications, signal difference to noise ratio (SDNR) and artifact spread function width (ASFW) were calculated. The acquisition schemes with very high central dose yielded significantly lower SDNR than the schemes with more uniform dose distributions. The ASFW was found to decrease (meaning an increase in depth resolution) with wider angular range. In conclusion, none of the evaluated acquisition schemes were found to yield higher SDNR or depth resolution for the simulated microcalcifications than the standard acquisition scheme.

Department/s

  • Medical Radiation Physics, Malmö
  • Radiology Diagnostics, Malmö

Publishing year

2015

Language

English

Pages

94121-94121

Publication/Series

Medical Imaging 2015: Physics of Medical Imaging

Volume

9412

Document type

Conference paper

Publisher

SPIE

Topic

  • Radiology, Nuclear Medicine and Medical Imaging

Keywords

  • breast tomosynthesis
  • Monte Carlo simulation
  • acquisition parameters
  • software breast phantom
  • microcalcification simulation

Conference name

Conference on Medical Imaging - Physics of Medical Imaging, 2015

Conference date

2015-02-22 - 2015-02-25

Conference place

Orlando, FL, United States

Status

Published

Research group

  • Medical Radiation Physics, Malmö
  • Radiology Diagnostics, Malmö

ISBN/ISSN/Other

  • ISSN: 1996-756X
  • ISSN: 0277-786X