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Title: Computerized quantitative evaluation of mammographic accreditation phantom images

Journal Article · · Medical Physics
DOI:https://doi.org/10.1118/1.3516238· OSTI ID:22096840
; ;  [1]
  1. Department of Radiological Technology, School of Health Sciences, Niigata University, 2-746 Asahimachidori, Chuouku, Niigata 951-8518 (Japan)

Purpose: The objective was to develop and investigate an automated scoring scheme of the American College of Radiology (ACR) mammographic accreditation phantom (RMI 156, Middleton, WI) images. Methods: The developed method consisted of background subtraction, determination of region of interest, classification of fiber and mass objects by Mahalanobis distance, detection of specks by template matching, and rule-based scoring. Fifty-one phantom images were collected from 51 facilities for this study (one facility provided one image). A medical physicist and two radiologic technologists also scored the images. The human and computerized scores were compared. Results: In terms of meeting the ACR's criteria, the accuracies of the developed method for computerized evaluation of fiber, mass, and speck were 90%, 80%, and 98%, respectively. Contingency table analysis revealed significant association between observer and computer scores for microcalcifications (p<5%) but not for masses and fibers. Conclusions: The developed method may achieve a stable assessment of visibility for test objects in mammographic accreditation phantom image in whether the phantom image meets the ACR's criteria in the evaluation test, although there is room left for improvement in the approach for fiber and mass objects.

OSTI ID:
22096840
Journal Information:
Medical Physics, Vol. 37, Issue 12; Other Information: (c) 2010 American Association of Physicists in Medicine; Country of input: International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA); ISSN 0094-2405
Country of Publication:
United States
Language:
English