Physical characteristics of five clinical systems for digital mammography

Abstract

The purpose of this study was to evaluate and compare the physical characteristics of five clinical systems for digital mammography (GE Senographe 2000D, Lorad Selenia M-IV, Fischer Senoscan, Agfa DM 1000, and IMS Giotto) currently in clinical use. The basic performances of the mammography systems tested were assessed on the basis of response curve, modulation transfer function (MTF), noise power spectrum, noise equivalent quanta (NEQ), and detective quantum efficiency (DQE) in an experimental setting closely resembling the clinical one. As expected, all the full field digital mammography systems show a linear response curve over a dynamic range from 3.5 to 500 microGy (0.998<R2< 1). The presampling MTFs at 2, 3, and 5 lp/mm were found to be respectively 0.78, 0.64, and 0.37 for GE Senographe 2000D; 0.92, 0.85, and 0.69 for Lorad Selenia and Agfa DM1000; 0.75, 0.63, and 0.42 for Fischer Senoscan; and 0.91, 0.82, and 0.61 for the IMS Giotto. According to the pixel size of each digital system, the presampling MTF was calculated within a range up to the Nyquist frequency (5 lp/mm for GE Senographe 2000D, 7.1 lp/mm for Lorad Selenia, 9.3 lp/mm for Fischer Senoscan, and 5.88 lp/mm for IMS Giotto detector). The NEQ becomes related to the exposure in a linear behavior starting from about 40.3 microGy for GE Senographe 2000D, 42.9 microGy for Lorad Selenia, 41.2 microGy for Agfa DM1000, <87.6 microGy for Fischer Senoscan, and 61.3 microGy for the IMS Giotto. Above those values, the systems can be considered "quantum noise limited," that is the electronic noise is negligible if compared to the quantum noise. The DQE, for several emitted x-ray spectra for each system, i.e., 28 kV p Mo-Mo, Mo-Rh, Rh-Rh, W-Al anode-filter combination, hardened by 40 mm poly(methylmethacrylate) (PMMA) was evaluated. For the five different systems, the DQE at close to zero spatial frequency ranges between 0.25 and 0.63 at 131 microGy entrance surface air kerma to the detectors. The results of our quantitative analysis demonstrated a higher DQE for direct conversion technology when compared to that of the indirect conversion. The NEQ behavior of each system can be exploited to select the optimum exposure level set in clinical practice to ensure minimum patient dose though adequate image quality. The detailed results of the physical characterization of the digital systems reported in this work allow the quantitative comparison of different technologies as well as the definition of reference values for subsequent quality control tests. The method developed in this work is suitable to be reproduced in any medical physics department for the previously described goals.