Prog Med Phys.  2012 Dec;23(4):261-268.

Comparison of Digital Mammography and Digital Breast Tomosynthesis

• Kim YS
• Park HS
• Choi JG
• Choi YW
• Park JH
• Lee JJ
• Kwak SB
• Kim EH
• Kim JY
• Jung HJ
• Lee HH
• Bae GW
• Lee MY
• Kim HJ

Abstract

Breast cancer is the second leading cause of women cancer death in Korea. The key for reducing disease mortality is early detection. Although digital mammography (DM) has been credited as one of the major reasons for the early detection to decrease in breast cancer mortality observed in the last 20 years, DM is far from perfect for several limitations. Digital breast tomosynthesis (DBT) is expected to overcome some inherent limitations of conventional mammography caused by overlapping of normal tissue and pathological tissue during the standard 2D projections for the improved lesion margin visibility and early breast cancer detection. In this study, we compared a DM system and DBT system acquired with different thickness of breast phantom. We acquired breast phantom data with same average glandular dose (AGD) from 1 mGy to 4 mGy under same experimental condition. The contrast, micro-calcification measurement accuracy and observer study were conducted with breast phantom images. As a result, the higher accuracy of lesion detection with DBT system compared to DM system was demonstrated in this study. Furthermore, the pain of patients caused by severe compression can be reduced with DBT system. In conclusion, the results indicated that DBT system play an important role in breast cancer detection.

Keyword

Digital mammography; Digital breast tomosynthesis; Breast phantom; Average glandular dose; Contrast

MeSH Terms

Breast
Breast Neoplasms
Female
Humans
Korea
Mammography