Physical characteristics of a full-field digital mammography system

The physical performance characteristics of a flat-panel clinical full-field digital mammography (FFDM) system were investigated for a variety of mammographic X-ray spectral conditions. The system was investigated using 26 kVp: Mo/Mo, 28 kVp: Mo/Rh, and 30 kVp: Rh/Rh, with polymethyl methacrylate (PMMA) “tissue equivalent material” of thickness 20, 45, and 60 mm for each of three X-ray spectra, resulting in nine different spectral conditions. The experimental results were compared with a theoretical cascaded linear systems-based model that has been developed independently by other investigators. The FFDM imager (Senographe 2000D, GE Medical Systems, Milwaukee, WI) uses an amorphous silicon (aSi:H) photodiode (100 μm pixel) array directly coupled to a cesium iodide (CsI) scintillator. The spatial resolution of the digital mammography system was determined by measuring the presampling modulation transfer function (MTF). The noise power spectra (NPS) of the system were measured under the different mammographic X-ray spectral conditions at an exposure of approximately 10 mR to the detector from which corresponding detective quantum efficiencies (DQE) were determined. The experimental results provide additional information on the performance of the mammographic system for a broader range of experimental conditions than have been reported in the past. The flat-panel imager exhibits favorable physical quality characteristics under the conditions investigated. The experimental results were compared with theoretical estimates under various spectral conditions and demonstrated good agreement.