• Digital spot compression views (DSCVs) are often needed in breast screening programmes. • Digital breast tomosynthesis (DBT) now offers an alternative to DSCV • In recalls without calcification, DBT was at least equally accurate as DSCVs • DBT has a lower mean glandular dose than DSCVs • Thus DBT has the potential to help reduce the recall rate.

Ruthenium ophthalmic applicators are energetic beta ray sources, supplied in several shapes and dimensions, and used in intraocular tumor therapy. Because of their small dimensions, the determination of dosimetric characteristics represents a technical challenge. We developed a semiautomatic method to define surface dose, dose distribution, and percentage depth dose of such applicators using radiochromic dosimetric media. These detectors consist of a thin (7 microns) radiation sensitive layer on polyester base (100 microns total thickness) changing color as a function of radiation exposure. Transmission images of exposed films were then grabbed with a TV-digitizer system to obtain a gray-level image from which dosimetric characteristics such as isodose distribution, dose values, and homogeneity of nuclide distribution were derived. Good agreement between experimental results and Monte Carlo simulation performed using the GEANT 3 code, appear to be a confirmation of the validity of the method. Moreover while manufacturer specifications of absolute and relative dose rates present a standard deviation error of +/- 30% on dose rate and +/- 6% on accuracy of relative dose values, the proposed method reduces the errors to +/- 10% and +/- 4%, respectively.

Breast density is considered to be an independent risk factor for cancer Density can be assessed on full-field digital mammography and digital breast tomosynthesis Objective automated estimation of breast density eliminates subjectivity Automated estimation is more accurate than BI-RADS quantitative evaluation Breast density may be significantly underestimated on digital breast tomosynthesis.