Assessing radiologist performance and microcalcifications visualization using combined 3D rotating mammogram (RM) and digital breast tomosynthesis (DBT)

Abstract

We evaluated the diagnostic performance of a novel 3D visualization approach (rotating mammogram, RM) in combination with DBT compared with that of FFDM and DBT alone.. FFDM, DBT alone and DBT images plus reconstructed RM from 110 breasts (34 cases of breast cancer and 76 normal breasts) were evaluated and rated independently by 6 readers. DBT plus RM demonstrated superior diagnostic accuracy compared to FFDM (p<0.05) and a small improvement in performance compared to DBT alone. Visualization of microcalcifications was significantly better on RM than DBT (p<0.05) for all 14 microcalcification-dominant cancer lesions. Adjunction of RM to DBT will offer the benefit of increased diagnostic accuracy and contribute to more accurate assessment of DBT alone. © 2014 Springer International Publishing.