Constancy checking of digital breast tomosynthesis systems

Abstract

As the number of installed digital breast tomosynthesis (DBT) systems increases, the need for quality control routines rises. Current work reports on our initial experience with a newly developed method for the analysis of DBT acquisitions of a homogenous phantom. Both the uniformity of the projection as of the reconstruction data is analyzed, together with the in-plane and inter-plane noise variations. The approach was tested in 2 different ways: on DBT projection and reconstructed data of different vendors and via simulations of potential detector artifacts known from 2D mammography into the projection images of the DBT (and followed by reconstruction of the hybrid data). The following potentially disturbing artifacts were observed: localized detector artifacts, modification of reconstruction software settings and synchronization issues. Our results indicate that the proposed method could be an easy and reliable way of performing constancy checking of DBT systems. © 2010 Springer-Verlag.