Digital magnification mammography with matched incident exposure: physical imaging properties and detectability of simulated microcalcifications

Abstract

Our purpose was to evaluate the usefulness of digital magnification mammography with matched incident exposure by investigating the physical imaging properties and doing an observer performance test. A computed radiography system and a mammographic unit were used in this study. Contact and magnification radiographies of 1.2-1.8 in combination with focal spot sizes of 0.1mm without grid and 0.3mm with grid were performed. Physical imaging properties, namely, scatter fraction, total modulation transfer function (MTF) including the presampled MTF and the MTF of focal spot size, and Wiener spectrum (WS), were measured. Detail visibility was evaluated by use of free-response receiver operating characteristic analysis of the detectability of simulated microcalcifications. Scatter fractions decreased considerably as the magnification factor increased without grid technique. In the grid technique, scatter fractions for all magnification techniques were comparable. The total MTFs of magnification techniques with a focal spot size of 0.1mm improved significantly compared with the conventional contact technique. However, the improvement of the total MTFs of magnification techniques with the combination of 0.3mm focal spot size was small. The WSs degraded with an increase of the magnification factor compared with the contact technique due to the maintained exposure incident on the object. The observer performance test indicated that the 1.8 magnification technique with the 0.1mm focal spot size provided higher detectability than did the contact technique. Digital magnification mammography under the same incident exposure conditions improved the detectability of microcalcifications.