A common method for evaluating projection mammography is Contrast-Detail (CD) curves derived from the CD phantom for Mammography (CDMAM). The CD curves are derived either by human observers, or by automated readings. Both methods have drawbacks which limit their reliability. The human based reading is significantly affected by reader variability, reduced precision and bias. On the other hand, the automated methods suffer from limited statistics. The purpose of this paper is to develop a simple and reliable methodology for the evaluation of mammographic imaging systems using the Signal Known Exactly/Background Known Exactly (SKE/BKE) detection task for signals relevant to mammography. In this paper, we used the spatial definition of the ideal, linear (Hotelling) observer to calculate the task-specific SNR for mammography and discussed the results. The noise covariance matrix as well as the detector response H matrix of the imaging system were estimated and used to calculate the SNR_SKEBKE for the simulated discs of the CDMAM. The SNR as a function of exposure, disc diameter and thickness were calculated.

Date Published: 10 March 2009
PDF: 11 pages
Proc. SPIE 7258, Medical Imaging 2009: Physics of Medical Imaging, 72581D (10 March 2009); doi: 10.1117/12.813833

Published in SPIE Proceedings Vol. 7258:
Medical Imaging 2009: Physics of Medical Imaging
Ehsan Samei; Jiang Hsieh, Editor(s)