MAMMO_QC: Free software for quality control (QC) analysis in digital mammography and digital breast tomosynthesis compliant with the European guidelines and EUREF/EFOMP protocols

Abstract

Quality Control (QC) tests in mammography are very important, since mammograms have been used as a population-based screening test for more than 30 years and QCs lead to better image quality and radiation safety for patients. European guidelines, EUREF and EFOMP protocols provide comprehensive QC guidelines for digital mammography (DM) and digital breast tomosynthesis (DBT) units, respectively. We developed a novel, fast, free and platform independent software (named MAMMO_QC) for QC performance tests in DM and tomosynthesis, based on the aforementioned guidelines. MAMMO_QC consists of a series of ImageJ plugins for DM and DBT. It does not require any programming knowledge and can be used to evaluate several performance parameters, such as pre-sampled modulation transfer function (pMTF), normalised noise power spectrum (NNPS), detective quantum efficiency (DQE), contrast-detail analysis based on the CDMAM 3.4 and 4.0 test tools, homogeneity and artefacts, automatic exposure control (AEC) performance. The user can use MAMMO_QC for acceptance, commissioning and routine QC performance analysis based on the European guidelines. We validated our results against well-established software products used in mammography and DBT (i.e., COQ, OBJ_IQ_reduced and Artinis CDMAM Analyzer). All the average relative differences were within 5.5%, and several years of usage and testing allows us to consider MAMMO_QC as an accurate and reliable tool for QC on DM and DBT systems. Our developed software for DM and DBT computes almost all the parameters stated in the European, EUREF and EFOMP guidelines. To the best of our knowledge, no such software has been developed so far.