A harmonized quality control program for digital mammography

Abstract

Digital mammography is rapidly becoming a mature imaging modality. To maintain high quality in mammography, a routine quality control program is necessary to detect drifting or degradation of system performance over time. The American College of Radiology is developing a quality control program which will apply to all types of full-field digital mammography equipment, and provide effective and more efficient validation of performance. In the DMIST trial, there were no failures for many of the QC tests during the 24 months imaging was performed. When systems failed, they generally did so suddenly, rather than through gradual deterioration of performance. A recommended set of tests is presented, which can be used to ensure that full-field digital mammography (FFDM) systems are functioning correctly, and consistently producing mammograms of excellent image quality. © Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg 2006.