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Marshall NW, Bosmans H. Performance evaluation of digital breast tomosynthesis systems: physical methods and experimental data. Phys Med Biol 2022; 67. [DOI: 10.1088/1361-6560/ac9a35] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 02/22/2022] [Accepted: 10/13/2022] [Indexed: 11/17/2022]
Abstract
Abstract
Digital breast tomosynthesis (DBT) has become a well-established breast imaging technique, whose performance has been investigated in many clinical studies, including a number of prospective clinical trials. Results from these studies generally point to non-inferiority in terms of microcalcification detection and superior mass-lesion detection for DBT imaging compared to digital mammography (DM). This modality has become an essential tool in the clinic for assessment and ad-hoc screening but is not yet implemented in most breast screening programmes at a state or national level. While evidence on the clinical utility of DBT has been accumulating, there has also been progress in the development of methods for technical performance assessment and quality control of these imaging systems. DBT is a relatively complicated ‘pseudo-3D’ modality whose technical assessment poses a number of difficulties. This paper reviews methods for the technical performance assessment of DBT devices, starting at the component level in part one and leading up to discussion of system evaluation with physical test objects in part two. We provide some historical and basic theoretical perspective, often starting from methods developed for DM imaging. Data from a multi-vendor comparison are also included, acquired under the medical physics quality control protocol developed by EUREF and currently being consolidated by a European Federation of Organisations for Medical Physics working group. These data and associated methods can serve as a reference for the development of reference data and provide some context for clinical studies.
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Automated Segmentation of Mass Regions in DBT Images Using a Dilated DCNN Approach. COMPUTATIONAL INTELLIGENCE AND NEUROSCIENCE 2022; 2022:9082694. [PMID: 35154309 PMCID: PMC8828338 DOI: 10.1155/2022/9082694] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 12/06/2021] [Revised: 01/02/2022] [Accepted: 01/15/2022] [Indexed: 11/25/2022]
Abstract
To overcome the limitations of conventional breast screening methods based on digital mammography, a quasi-3D imaging technique, digital breast tomosynthesis (DBT) has been developed in the field of breast cancer screening in recent years. In this work, a computer-aided architecture for mass regions segmentation in DBT images using a dilated deep convolutional neural network (DCNN) is developed. First, to improve the low contrast of breast tumour candidate regions and depress the background tissue noise in the DBT image effectively, the constraint matrix is established after top-hat transformation and multiplied with the DBT image. Second, input image patches are generated, and the data augmentation technique is performed to create the training data set for training a dilated DCNN architecture. Then the mass regions in DBT images are preliminarily segmented; each pixel is divided into two different kinds of labels. Finally, the postprocessing procedure removes all false-positives regions with less than 50 voxels. The final segmentation results are obtained by smoothing the boundaries of the mass regions with a median filter. The testing accuracy (ACC), sensitivity (SEN), and the area under the receiver operating curve (AUC) are adopted as the evaluation metrics, and the ACC, SEN, as well as AUC are 86.3%, 85.6%, and 0.852 for segmenting the mass regions in DBT images on the entire data set, respectively. The experimental results indicate that our proposed approach achieves promising results compared with other classical CAD-based frameworks.
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Ghammraoui B, Zidan A, Alayoubi A, Zidan A, Glick SJ. Fabrication of microcalcifications for insertion into phantoms used to evaluate x-ray breast imaging systems. Biomed Phys Eng Express 2021; 7. [PMID: 34375962 DOI: 10.1088/2057-1976/ac1c64] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 02/22/2021] [Accepted: 08/10/2021] [Indexed: 11/12/2022]
Abstract
Physical breast phantoms can be used to evaluate x-ray imaging systems such as mammography, digital breast tomosynthesis and dedicated breast computed tomography (bCT). These phantoms typically attempt to mimic x-ray attenuation properties of adipose and fibroglandular tissues within the breast. In order to use these phantoms for task-based objective assessment of image quality, relevant diagnostic features should be modeled within the phantom, such as mass lesions and/or microcalcifications. Evaluating imaging system performance in detecting microcalcifications is of particular interest due to its' clinical significance. Many previously-developed phantoms have used materials that model microcalcifications using unrealistic chemical composition, which do not accurately portray their desired x-ray attenuation and scatter properties. We report here on a new method for developing real microcalcification simulants that can be embedded in breast phantoms. This was achieved in several steps, including cross-linking hydroxyapatite and calcium oxalate powders with a binder called polyvinylpyrrolidone (PVP), and mechanical compression. The fabricated microcalcifications were evaluated by measuring their x-ray attenuation and scatter properties using x-ray spectroscopy and x-ray diffraction systems, respectively, and were demonstrated with x-ray mammography and bCT images. Results suggest that using these microcalcification models will make breast phantoms more realistic for use in evaluating task-based detection performance of the abovementioned breast imaging techniques, and bode well for extending their use to spectral imaging and x-ray coherent scatter computed tomography.
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Affiliation(s)
- Bahaa Ghammraoui
- Division of Imaging, Diagnostics, and Software Reliability, Office of Science and Engineering Laboratories, Center for Devices and Radiological Health, U.S. Food and Drug Administration, Silver Spring, MD 20993, United States of America
| | - Ahmed Zidan
- Division of Product Quality and Research, Center for Drug Evaluation and Research, U.S. Food and Drug Administration, Silver Spring, MD 20993, United States of America
| | - Alaadin Alayoubi
- Division of Product Quality and Research, Center for Drug Evaluation and Research, U.S. Food and Drug Administration, Silver Spring, MD 20993, United States of America
| | - Aser Zidan
- Division of Product Quality and Research, Center for Drug Evaluation and Research, U.S. Food and Drug Administration, Silver Spring, MD 20993, United States of America.,University of Maryland, Baltimore County, Baltimore, Maryland, United States of America
| | - Stephen J Glick
- Division of Imaging, Diagnostics, and Software Reliability, Office of Science and Engineering Laboratories, Center for Devices and Radiological Health, U.S. Food and Drug Administration, Silver Spring, MD 20993, United States of America
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Vancoillie L, Cockmartin L, Marshall N, Bosmans H. The impact on lesion detection via a multi-vendor study: A phantom-based comparison of digital mammography, digital breast tomosynthesis, and synthetic mammography. Med Phys 2021; 48:6270-6292. [PMID: 34407213 DOI: 10.1002/mp.15171] [Citation(s) in RCA: 7] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 02/05/2021] [Revised: 07/27/2021] [Accepted: 07/27/2021] [Indexed: 11/09/2022] Open
Abstract
PURPOSE The aim of this study is to perform a test object-based comparison of the imaging performance of digital mammography (DM), digital breast tomosynthesis (DBT), and synthetic mammography (SM). METHODS Two test objects were used, the CDMAM and the L1-structured phantom. Small-detail detectability was assessed using CDMAM and the microcalcification simulating specks in the L1-structured background. Detection of spiculated and non-spiculated mass-like objects was assessed using the L1 phantom. Six different systems were included: Amulet Innovality (Fujifilm), Senographe Pristina (GEHC), 3Dimensions (Hologic), Giotto Class (IMS), Clarity 2D/3D (Planmed), and Mammomat Revelation (Siemens). Images were acquired under automatic exposure control (AEC) and at adjusted levels of AEC/2 and 2 × AEC level. Threshold gold thickness (Ttr ) was established for the 0.13-mm-diameter CDMAM discs. Threshold diameters for the calcifications (dtr_c ), the spiculated masses (dtr_sm ), and for the non-spiculated masses (dtr_nsm ) were established. The threshold condition was defined as the thickness or diameter for a 62.5% correct score. RESULTS Ttr for DM was generally superior to DBT, which in turn was superior to SM, but for most systems, these differences between modes were not significant. For L1, no significant differences in dtr_c were found between DM and DBT. The increase in dtr_c from DM to SM at AEC dose was 1%, 19%, 11%, 14%, 46%, and 27% for the Fujifilm, GEHC, Hologic, IMS, Planmed, and Siemens, respectively, indicating significantly poorer performance for all vendors except for Fujifilm, Hologic, and IMS. For both mass types, DBT performed better than SM, while SM showed no significant difference with DM (except for Fujifilm spiculated masses). The dose had an impact on small-detail detectability for both phantoms but did not influence the detection of either mass type. CONCLUSIONS Both phantoms indicated potentially reduced small-detail detectability for SM versus DM and DBT and should therefore not be used in stand-alone mode. The L1 phantom demonstrated no significant difference in microcalcification detection between DM and DBT and also demonstrated the superiority of DBT, compared to DM for mass detection, for all six systems.
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Affiliation(s)
- Liesbeth Vancoillie
- Department of Imaging and Pathology, KU Leuven, Division of Medical Physics & Quality Assessment, Leuven, Belgium
| | | | - Nicholas Marshall
- Department of Imaging and Pathology, KU Leuven, Division of Medical Physics & Quality Assessment, Leuven, Belgium.,Department of Radiology, UZ Leuven, Leuven, Belgium
| | - Hilde Bosmans
- Department of Imaging and Pathology, KU Leuven, Division of Medical Physics & Quality Assessment, Leuven, Belgium.,Department of Radiology, UZ Leuven, Leuven, Belgium
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Gao Y, Moy L, Heller SL. Digital Breast Tomosynthesis: Update on Technology, Evidence, and Clinical Practice. Radiographics 2021; 41:321-337. [PMID: 33544665 DOI: 10.1148/rg.2021200101] [Citation(s) in RCA: 23] [Impact Index Per Article: 7.7] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 01/13/2023]
Abstract
Digital breast tomosynthesis (DBT) has been widely adopted in breast imaging in both screening and diagnostic settings. The benefits of DBT are well established. Compared with two-dimensional digital mammography (DM), DBT preferentially increases detection of invasive cancers without increased detection of in-situ cancers, maximizing identification of biologically significant disease, while mitigating overdiagnosis. The higher sensitivity of DBT for architectural distortion allows increased diagnosis of invasive cancers overall and particularly improves the visibility of invasive lobular cancers. Implementation of DBT has decreased the number of recalls for false-positive findings at screening, contributing to improved specificity at diagnostic evaluation. Integration of DBT in diagnostic examinations has also resulted in an increased percentage of biopsies with positive results, improving diagnostic confidence. Although individual DBT examinations have a longer interpretation time compared with that for DM, DBT has streamlined the diagnostic workflow and minimized the need for short-term follow-up examinations, redistributing much-needed time resources to screening. Yet DBT has limitations. Although improvements in cancer detection and recall rates are seen for patients in a large spectrum of age groups and breast density categories, these benefits are minimal in women with extremely dense breast tissue, and the extent of these benefits may vary by practice environment and by geographic location. Although DBT allows detection of more invasive cancers than does DM, its incremental yield is lower than that of US and MRI. Current understanding of the biologic profile of DBT-detected cancers is limited. Whether DBT improves breast cancer-specific mortality remains a key question that requires further investigation. ©RSNA, 2021.
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Affiliation(s)
- Yiming Gao
- From the Department of Radiology, New York University Langone Medical Center, 160 E 34th St, New York, NY 10016
| | - Linda Moy
- From the Department of Radiology, New York University Langone Medical Center, 160 E 34th St, New York, NY 10016
| | - Samantha L Heller
- From the Department of Radiology, New York University Langone Medical Center, 160 E 34th St, New York, NY 10016
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Mota AM, Clarkson MJ, Almeida P, Peralta L, Matela N. Impact of total variation minimization in volume rendering visualization of breast tomosynthesis data. COMPUTER METHODS AND PROGRAMS IN BIOMEDICINE 2020; 195:105534. [PMID: 32480190 DOI: 10.1016/j.cmpb.2020.105534] [Citation(s) in RCA: 1] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 02/11/2020] [Revised: 04/23/2020] [Accepted: 05/07/2020] [Indexed: 06/11/2023]
Abstract
BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVE Total Variation (TV) minimization algorithms have achieved great attention due to the virtue of decreasing noise while preserving edges. The purpose of this work is to implement and evaluate two TV minimization methods in 3D. Their performance is analyzed through 3D visualization of digital breast tomosynthesis (DBT) data with volume rendering. METHODS Both filters were studied with real phantom and one clinical DBT data. One algorithm was applied sequentially to all slices and the other was applied to the entire volume at once. The suitable Lagrange multiplier used in each filter equation was studied to reach the minimum 3D TV and the maximum contrast-to-noise ratio (CNR). Imaging blur was measured at 0° and 90° using two disks with different diameters (0.5 mm and 5.0 mm) and equal thickness. The quality of unfiltered and filtered data was analyzed with volume rendering at 0° and 90°. RESULTS For phantom data, with the sequential filter, a decrease of 25% in 3D TV value and an increase of 19% and 30% in CNR at 0° and 90°, respectively, were observed. When the filter is applied directly in 3D, TV value was reduced by 35% and an increase of 36% was achieved both for CNR at 0° and 90°. For the smaller disk, variations of 0% in width at half maximum (FWHM) at 0° and a decrease of about 2.5% for FWHM at 90° were observed for both filters. For the larger disk, there was a 2.5% increase in FWHM at 0° for both filters and a decrease of 6.28% and 1.69% in FWHM at 90° with the sequential filter and the 3D filter, respectively. When applied to clinical data, the performance of each filter was consistent with that obtained with the phantom. CONCLUSIONS Data analysis confirmed the relevance of these methods in improving quality of DBT images. Additionally, this type of 3D visualization showed that it may play an important complementary role in DBT imaging. It allows to visualize all DBT data at once and to analyze properly filters applied to all the three dimensions. Concise Abstract Total Variation (TV) minimization algorithms are one compressed sensing technique that has achieved great attention due to the virtue of decrease noise while preserve edges transitions. The purpose of this work is to solve the same TV minimization problem in DBT data, by studying two 3D filters. The obtained results were analyzed at 0° and 90° with a 3D visualization through volume rendering. The filters differ in their application. One considers a slice-by-slice optimization, sequentially traversing all slices of the data. The other considers the intensity values of adjacent slices to make this optimization on each voxel. The performance of each filter was also tested with a clinical case. The results obtained were very encouraging with a significantly increased contrast to noise ratio at 0° and 90° and a small reduction in blur at 90° (slight reduction of the out-of-plane artifact).
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Affiliation(s)
- A M Mota
- Faculdade de Ciências, Instituto de Biofísica e Engenharia Biomédica, Universidade de Lisboa, Campo Grande, 1749-016 Lisboa, Portugal.
| | - M J Clarkson
- Department of Medical Physics and Biomedical Engineering and the Centre for Medical Image Computing, University College London, London, UK
| | - P Almeida
- Faculdade de Ciências, Instituto de Biofísica e Engenharia Biomédica, Universidade de Lisboa, Campo Grande, 1749-016 Lisboa, Portugal
| | - L Peralta
- Departamento de Física da Faculdade de Ciências da Universidade de Lisboa, Lisboa, Portugal; Laboratório de Instrumentação e Física Experimental de Partículas, Lisboa, Portugal
| | - N Matela
- Faculdade de Ciências, Instituto de Biofísica e Engenharia Biomédica, Universidade de Lisboa, Campo Grande, 1749-016 Lisboa, Portugal
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Mota AM, Clarkson MJ, Almeida P, Matela N. Optimization of Breast Tomosynthesis Visualization through 3D Volume Rendering. J Imaging 2020; 6:jimaging6070064. [PMID: 34460657 PMCID: PMC8321085 DOI: 10.3390/jimaging6070064] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 05/20/2020] [Revised: 06/25/2020] [Accepted: 06/30/2020] [Indexed: 11/16/2022] Open
Abstract
3D volume rendering may represent a complementary option in the visualization of Digital Breast Tomosynthesis (DBT) examinations by providing an understanding of the underlying data at once. Rendering parameters directly influence the quality of rendered images. The purpose of this work is to study the influence of two of these parameters (voxel dimension in z direction and sampling distance) on DBT rendered data. Both parameters were studied with a real phantom and one clinical DBT data set. The voxel size was changed from 0.085 × 0.085 × 1.0 mm3 to 0.085 × 0.085 × 0.085 mm3 using ten interpolation functions available in the Visualization Toolkit library (VTK) and several sampling distance values were evaluated. The results were investigated at 90º using volume rendering visualization with composite technique. For phantom quantitative analysis, degree of smoothness, contrast-to-noise ratio, and full width at half maximum of a Gaussian curve fitted to the profile of one disk were used. Additionally, the time required for each visualization was also recorded. Hamming interpolation function presented the best compromise in image quality. The sampling distance values that showed a better balance between time and image quality were 0.025 mm and 0.05 mm. With the appropriate rendering parameters, a significant improvement in rendered images was achieved.
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Affiliation(s)
- Ana M. Mota
- Instituto de Biofísica e Engenharia Biomédica, Faculdade de Ciências, Universidade de Lisboa, 1749-016 Lisboa, Portugal; (P.A.); (N.M.)
- Correspondence:
| | - Matthew J. Clarkson
- Department of Medical Physics and Biomedical Engineering and the Centre for Medical Image Computing, University College London, London WC1E 6BT, UK;
| | - Pedro Almeida
- Instituto de Biofísica e Engenharia Biomédica, Faculdade de Ciências, Universidade de Lisboa, 1749-016 Lisboa, Portugal; (P.A.); (N.M.)
| | - Nuno Matela
- Instituto de Biofísica e Engenharia Biomédica, Faculdade de Ciências, Universidade de Lisboa, 1749-016 Lisboa, Portugal; (P.A.); (N.M.)
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