title: Modeling, validation and application of a mathematical tissue-equivalent breast phantom for linear slot-scanning digital mammography.
abstract: This paper presents a mathematical tissue-equivalent breast phantom for linear slot-scanning digital mammography. A recently developed prototype linear slot-scanning digital mammography system was used for model validation; image quality metrics such as image contrast and contrast-to-noise ratio were calculated. The results were in good agreement with values measured using a physical breast-equivalent phantom designed for mammography. The estimated pixel intensity of the mathematical phantom, the analogue-to-digital conversion gain and the detector additive noise showed good agreement with measured values with correlation of nearly 1. An application of the model, to examine the feasibility of using a monochromatic filter for dose reduction and improvement of image quality in slot-scanning digital mammography, is presented.
authors.affiliation: MRC/UCT Medical Imaging Research Unit, Department of Human Biology, University of Cape Town, Observatory 7935 South Africa.
authors.forename: K
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Hussein
authors.forename: C L
authors.initials: CL
authors.lastname: Vaughan
authors.forename: T S
authors.initials: TS
authors.lastname: Douglas
mesh_terms: D001940:Breast / Q000166:cytology*; D005240:Feasibility Studies; D007091:Image Processing, Computer-Assisted; D008327:Mammography / Q000295:instrumentation*; D008954:Models, Biological; D019047:Phantoms, Imaging; D011829:Radiation Dosage; D011856:Radiographic Image Enhancement / Q000295:instrumentation*; D012984:Software