A new breast phantom suitable for digital mammography, contrast-enhanced digital mammography and digital breast tomosynthesis

Abstract

Our objective is to report a new breast phantom that provides the objective assessment for three types of clinical mammography, i.e. digital mammography (DM), contrast-enhanced digital mammography (CEDM), and digital breast tomosynthesis (DBT). The tissue-equivalent materials are used to represent the corresponding tissue, and the layer-by-layer structure with separate regions is designed for image quality assessment of different mammography modes. For DM imaging, substitutes for microcalcifications and fibroglandular tissue of different sizes are used to simulate the conventional breast. For CEDM imaging, the tumor module that can be injected with imaging contrast agents is adopted to distinguish normal tissue and diseased tissue in the dense breast. For DBT imaging, the overlapping breast mass module with multiple layers is designed to perform the layer-by-layer imaging of overlapping tissue. In addition, the quantitative assessment module of image quality is designed based on contrast-to-noise ratio (CNR), modulation transfer function (MTF) and artifact spread function (ASF). This phantom allows image quality to be evaluated objectively for three different types of the clinical mammography, while it provides an effective tool for optimizing the dose-image quality relationship of patients.