Estimating breast thickness for dual-energy subtraction in contrast-enhanced digital mammography using calibration phantoms

Kristen C. Lau; Young Joon Kwon; Moez Karim Aziz; Raymond J. Acciavatti; Andrew D. A. Maidment

doi:10.1117/12.2214748

4 April 2016 Estimating breast thickness for dual-energy subtraction in contrast-enhanced digital mammography using calibration phantoms

Kristen C. Lau, Young Joon Kwon, Moez Karim Aziz, Raymond J. Acciavatti, Andrew D. A. Maidment

Author Affiliations +

Proceedings Volume 9783, Medical Imaging 2016: Physics of Medical Imaging; 978307 (2016) https://doi.org/10.1117/12.2214748
Event: SPIE Medical Imaging, 2016, San Diego, California, United States

Abstract

Dual-energy contrast-enhanced digital mammography (DE CE-DM) uses an iodinated contrast agent to image the perfusion and vasculature of the breast. DE images are obtained by a weighted logarithmic subtraction of the high-energy (HE) and low-energy (LE) image pairs. We hypothesized that the optimal DE subtraction weighting factor is thickness-dependent, and developed a method for determining breast tissue composition and thickness in DE CE-DM. Phantoms were constructed using uniform blocks of 100% glandular-equivalent and 100% adipose-equivalent material. The thickness of the phantoms ranged from 3 to 8 cm, in 1 cm increments. For a given thickness, the glandular-adipose composition of the phantom was varied using different combinations of blocks. The logarithmic LE and logarithmic HE signal intensities were measured; they decrease linearly with increasing glandularity for a given thickness. The signals decrease with increasing phantom thickness and the x-ray signal decreases linearly with thickness for a given glandularity. As the thickness increases, the attenuation difference per additional glandular block decreases, indicating beam hardening. From the calibration mapping, we have demonstrated that we can predict percent glandular tissue and thickness when given two distinct signal intensities. Our results facilitate the subtraction of tissue at the boundaries of the breast, and aid in discriminating between contrast agent uptake in glandular tissue and subtraction artifacts.

Citation Download Citation

Kristen C. Lau, Young Joon Kwon, Moez Karim Aziz, Raymond J. Acciavatti, and Andrew D. A. Maidment "Estimating breast thickness for dual-energy subtraction in contrast-enhanced digital mammography using calibration phantoms", Proc. SPIE 9783, Medical Imaging 2016: Physics of Medical Imaging, 978307 (4 April 2016); https://doi.org/10.1117/12.2214748

ACCESS THE FULL ARTICLE

INSTITUTIONAL
Select your institution to access the SPIE Digital Library.

SELECT YOUR INSTITUTION

PERSONAL
Sign in with your SPIE account to access your personal subscriptions or to use specific features such as save to my library, sign up for alerts, save searches, etc.

PERSONAL SIGN IN

No SPIE Account? Create one

PURCHASE THIS CONTENT

SUBSCRIBE TO DIGITAL LIBRARY

50 downloads per 1-year subscription

Members: $195

Non-members: $335 ADD TO CART

25 downloads per 1 - year subscription

Members: $145

Non-members: $250 ADD TO CART

PURCHASE SINGLE ARTICLE

Includes PDF, HTML & Video, when available