Optimized signal of calcifications in wide-angle digital breast tomosynthesis systems: a virtual clinical study

Applicability of virtual breast phantoms for detectability studies in synthetic mammography

“…Additionally, the fraction of calcifications detected in each cluster was calculated for each dose distribution and modality, and differences were assessed using a paired t-test. These results, obtained with a virtual breast phantom population, were then compared to the results of the patient study performed previously [12], [17].…”

“…The AEC and convex DBT setups were not significantly different (p=0.228). In the patient study, Vancoillie et al [12] also perceived a significant decrease in detectability for the sparse setup compared to the AEC setup (p=0.001) and the convex versus the sparse setup (p=0.023), and no significant difference between AEC and convex (p=0.309). In general, calcification detection performance was superior in DBT images when compared to SM images.…”

“…To examine the use of performance evaluation as a means of studying breast phantom realism, the work of Vancoillie et al [12] was replicated virtually. Vancoillie et al [12] investigated the detectability of simulated microcalcifications in patient DBT and SM images for different DBT dose distributions.…”

“…To examine the use of performance evaluation as a means of studying breast phantom realism, the work of Vancoillie et al [12] was replicated virtually. Vancoillie et al [12] investigated the detectability of simulated microcalcifications in patient DBT and SM images for different DBT dose distributions. The current work investigates the impact of the same DBT dose distributions on similar simulated microcalcifications, however now embedded in DBT and SM images of anthropomorphic breast phantoms.…”

“…Readers were allowed to adjust window/level, and had to scroll through the DBT stack to find the cluster. Five of the six readers had also participated in the previous study by Vancoillie et al [12], that was performed more than a year ago. The new reader was also an experienced observer, having participated in a number of microcalcification detection studies.…”