On the relevance of modulation transfer function measurements in digital mammography quality control

Wigati, Kristina Tri; Marshall, Nicholas; Lemmens, Kim; Binst, Joke; Jacobs, A.; Cockmartin, Lesley; Zhang, Guozhi; Vancoillie, Liesbeth; Petrov, Dimitar; Vandenbroucke, D.; Soejoko, Djarwani Soeharso; Bosmans, Hilde

doi:10.1117/1.jmi.8.2.023505

Cited by 6 publications

(7 citation statements)

References 19 publications

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“…Note that the DBT QC protocol would be applied in conjunction with the DM protocol and thus a measurement of detector MTF would already have been performed; a potential difference could be that binning is applied in DBT mode for some systems. Extensive analysis of longitudinal MTF data measured for 55 DM systems (16 different models) as part of a QC programme is available in the study of Wigati et al (2021).…”

Section: X-ray Detector Presampling Mtf Using Projection Imagesmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Given the tube motion/rotation in DBT one might expect more faults related mechanical or stability faults. Relating fault conditions or gradually changing performance in a component to overall performance is useful and some studies have examined the use of parameters such as MTF, NNPS and DQE to do this for DM systems (Marshall 2006b, Wigati et al 2021. The work of Wigati et al (2021) established the stability of MTF measurements in longitudinal testing and examined the relation between changes in MTF and technical image quality, quantified using a threshold contrast-detail test object.…”

Section: Summary Of Physical Characterization Of Dbt Systems: Technic...mentioning

confidence: 99%

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Performance evaluation of digital breast tomosynthesis systems: physical methods and experimental data

Marshall¹,

Bosmans²

2022

Phys. Med. Biol.

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Digital breast tomosynthesis (DBT) has become a well-established breast imaging technique, whose performance has been investigated in many clinical studies, including a number of prospective clinical trials. Results from these studies generally point to non-inferiority in terms of microcalcification detection and superior mass-lesion detection for DBT imaging compared to digital mammography (DM). This modality has become an essential tool in the clinic for assessment and ad-hoc screening but is not yet implemented in most breast screening programmes at a state or national level. While evidence on the clinical utility of DBT has been accumulating, there has also been progress in the development of methods for technical performance assessment and quality control of these imaging systems. DBT is a relatively complicated “pseudo-3D” modality whose technical assessment poses a number of difficulties. This paper reviews methods for the technical performance assessment of DBT devices, starting at the component level in part one and leading up to discussion of system evaluation with physical test objects in part two. We provide some historical and basic theoretical perspective, often starting from methods developed for DM imaging. Data from a multi-vendor comparison are also included, acquired under the medical physics QC protocol developed by EUREF and currently being consolidated by a European Federation of Organisations for Medical Physics (EFOMP) working group. These data and associated methods can serve as a reference for the development of reference data and provide some context for clinical studies.

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Section: X-ray Detector Presampling Mtf Using Projection Imagesmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Summary Of Physical Characterization Of Dbt Systems: Technic...mentioning

confidence: 99%

Performance evaluation of digital breast tomosynthesis systems: physical methods and experimental data

Marshall¹,

Bosmans²

2022

Phys. Med. Biol.

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“…The deviations are within 10% of the average f25% value over a month of measurements. This demonstrates that the FFS technology is stable over time [12]. A DBT acquisition on the wide-angle system with moving focus takes about 21.7 s, while it takes 4.8 s when the x-ray tube is replaced with the FFS technology and the filtration is changed to produce higher tube outputs.…”

Section: X-ray Tube and Characterization Of Geometric Blurringmentioning

confidence: 87%

Improved isotropic resolution and small detail detectability in a digital breast tomosynthesis system with flying focal spot technology

Houbrechts,

Marshall,

Cockmartin

et al. 2024

Medical Imaging 2024: Physics of Medical Imaging

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There are two main acquisition modes for acquiring digital breast tomosynthesis (DBT) projection data: continuous mode and step-and-shoot mode. This work characterizes a new x-ray tube with flying focal spot (FFS) technology, designed to compensate for the continuous focus motion during exposure. The image sharpness of an established wide-angle DBT system with moving focus during exposure (the current standard) and a newly introduced FFS x-ray tube was assessed using the modulation transfer function (MTF). The spatial frequency for the 25% MTF value (f25%) was measured at 2, 4 and 6 cm above the table. The impact on the visibility of calcification-like test objects was investigated with the CDMAM phantom that was positioned at various heights above the table. The threshold gold thickness (Tt) was calculated for the 0.1 mm discs.For the moving focus system, f25% measured at 2, 4 and 6 cm in the 0° DBT projection fell by 35%, 49% and 59% in the tube-travel direction compared to figures of 7.6, 6.8, and 6.6 mm -1 for the FFS system. In the frontback direction, f25% was 7.4, 7.3 and 7.2 mm -1 at 2, 4 and 6 cm, respectively for the moving focus unit while for the FFS system, these figures were 7.1, 6.7 and 5.9 mm -1 . There was no significant difference in f25% for the front-back and tube-travel directions for the FFS unit (p<0.04). The Tt values at 4 cm and 6 cm above the table in DBT mode improved by 33% and 52%, respectively for the FFS system versus the moving focus system. The improvement in Tt increased as object height above the table increased. The FFS system has a reduced DBT scan time compared to the moving focus system (4.8s vs 21.7s) which is expected to reduce patient motion artefacts. The FFS system has in DBT mode an improved isotropic resolution, improved small detail detectability and faster total scan times. Therefore, this new DBT system has the potential for increased microcalcification detection and patient throughput compared to its predecessors.

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“…An interesting application example is provided by a study concerned with quality control of digital mammography (DM) systems. 18 In this study the MTF of multiple DM systems of different distributors employed by healthcare providers was measured in six month intervals over a period of multiple years employing the slanted edge method. The standard deviation of the measurements is in the range of multiple percent and may yield a good estimate on the reproducibility of slanted edge measurements in commercial healthcare applications, when they are performed under variable conditions and by different operators.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Off-axis, slit based MTF measurements at PTB

Schake,

Dierke,

Schulz

2023

Optical Technology and Measurement for Industrial Applications Conference

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This article presents off-axis modulation transfer function (MTF) measurements in the image field covered by the azimuthal angle θ = ±20 deg and a defocus range of ∆z ∈ [−40 µm, +40 µm] with the slit based MTF measurement setup at PTB. The experimentally determined standard deviation of a set of N = 10 MTF repetition measurements under a certain set of repeatability conditions is employed to estimate the standard uncertainty u exp with respect to the repeatability of measurements in the setup. The importance of measurement repeatability and measurement reproducibility in the assessment of measurement accuracy and measurement uncertainty for interlaboratory comparisons is discussed.

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On the relevance of modulation transfer function measurements in digital mammography quality control

Cited by 6 publications

References 19 publications

Performance evaluation of digital breast tomosynthesis systems: physical methods and experimental data

Performance evaluation of digital breast tomosynthesis systems: physical methods and experimental data

Improved isotropic resolution and small detail detectability in a digital breast tomosynthesis system with flying focal spot technology

Off-axis, slit based MTF measurements at PTB

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