Improvements to single energy absorptiometry method for digital mammography to quantify breast tissue density

Abstract

We report on the improvements of the design and characteristics of a single energy absorptiometry (SXA) method to quantify the volume of dense breast tissue from mammograms. The method consists of including a breast tissue equivalent phantom in the unused portion of the mammogram as a reference for breast composition. The phantom contains nine lead positioning markers which solve for the orientation of the paddle by a 3D reconstruction least square technique. The volumetric breast density was calculated by comparing image pixel values to the fat/fibroglandular references at the same thickness and using an elaborated calibration map. The breast density precision and accuracy were determined by multiple scans of a test phantom at different compression thicknesses and paddle-tilt angles. We also estimated the error contribution due to thickness and tilt angle variations. © 2008 Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg.