title: Breast tissue characterization with photon-counting spectral CT imaging: a postmortem breast study.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  To investigate the feasibility of breast tissue characterization in terms of water, lipid, and protein contents with a spectral computed tomographic (CT) system based on a cadmium zinc telluride (CZT) photon-counting detector by using postmortem breasts.
  
  
  METHODS
  Nineteen pairs of postmortem breasts were imaged with a CZT-based photon-counting spectral CT system with beam energy of 100 kVp. The mean glandular dose was estimated to be in the range of 1.8-2.2 mGy. The images were corrected for pulse pile-up and other artifacts by using spectral distortion corrections. Dual-energy decomposition was then applied to characterize each breast into water, lipid, and protein contents. The precision of the three-compartment characterization was evaluated by comparing the composition of right and left breasts, where the standard error of the estimations was determined. The results of dual-energy decomposition were compared by using averaged root mean square to chemical analysis, which was used as the reference standard.
  
  
  RESULTS
  The standard errors of the estimations of the right-left correlations obtained from spectral CT were 7.4%, 6.7%, and 3.2% for water, lipid, and protein contents, respectively. Compared with the reference standard, the average root mean square error in breast tissue composition was 2.8%.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Spectral CT can be used to accurately quantify the water, lipid, and protein contents in breast tissue in a laboratory study by using postmortem specimens.
authors.affiliation: From the Department of Radiological Sciences, University of California-Irvine, Medical Sciences I, B-140, Irvine, CA 92697.
authors.forename: Huanjun
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Ding
authors.forename: Michael J
authors.initials: MJ
authors.lastname: Klopfer
authors.forename: Justin L
authors.initials: JL
authors.lastname: Ducote
authors.forename: Fumitaro
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Masaki
authors.forename: Sabee
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Molloi
mesh_terms: D001344:Autopsy; D001940:Breast / Q000737:chemistry*; D002102:Cadaver; D004867:Equipment Design; D019544:Equipment Failure Analysis; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008055:Lipids / Q000032:analysis*; D008327:Mammography / Q000295:instrumentation*; D017785:Photons; D011506:Proteins / Q000032:analysis*; D015203:Reproducibility of Results; D012680:Sensitivity and Specificity; D013057:Spectrum Analysis / Q000295:instrumentation*; D014057:Tomography, X-Ray Computed / Q000295:instrumentation; D014867:Water / Q000032:analysis*
chemical_list: D008055:Lipids; D011506:Proteins; D014867:Water