Task specific evaluation of clinical full field digital mammography systems using the Fourier definition of the Hotelling observer SNR

Haimo Liu; Aldo Badano; Luis Benevides; Kish Chakrabarti; Richard V. Kaczmarek; Iacovos S. Kyprianou

doi:10.1117/12.845509

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22 March 2010 Task specific evaluation of clinical full field digital mammography systems using the Fourier definition of the Hotelling observer SNR

Haimo Liu, Aldo Badano, Luis Benevides, Kish Chakrabarti, Richard V. Kaczmarek, Iacovos S. Kyprianou

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Proceedings Volume 7622, Medical Imaging 2010: Physics of Medical Imaging; 762212 (2010) https://doi.org/10.1117/12.845509
Event: SPIE Medical Imaging, 2010, San Diego, California, United States

Abstract

Pixel Signal to Noise Ratio (SNR) is a commonly used clinical metric for evaluating mammography. However, we showed in this paper, the pixel SNR can produce misleading system detectability when image processing is utilized. We developed a simple, reliable and clinically applicable methodology to evaluate mammographic imaging systems using a task SNR that accounts for the imaging system performance in the presence of the patient. We used the Hotelling observer method in spatial frequency domain to calculate the task SNR of small disk test objects embedded in the breast tissue-equivalent series (BRTES) phantom for GE Senographe DS Full Field Digital Mammography (FFDM) system. The results were compared to the calculation of pixel SNR. We calculated the Hotelling observer SNR by estimating the generalized modulation transfer function (GMTF), generalized normalized noise power spectrum (GNNPS) and generalized noise equivalent quanta (GNEQ) in the presence of the breast phantom. The task SNR we calculated increased with the square root of the exposure as expected. Furthermore, we showed that the method is stable under image processing. The task SNR is a more reliable method for evaluating the performance of imaging systems especially under realistic clinical conditions where patient equivalent phantoms or image processing is used.

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Haimo Liu, Aldo Badano, Luis Benevides, Kish Chakrabarti, Richard V. Kaczmarek, and Iacovos S. Kyprianou "Task specific evaluation of clinical full field digital mammography systems using the Fourier definition of the Hotelling observer SNR", Proc. SPIE 7622, Medical Imaging 2010: Physics of Medical Imaging, 762212 (22 March 2010); https://doi.org/10.1117/12.845509

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