Abstract
The detection sensitivity of screening mammography is reduced for dense breasts where the appearance of fibroglandular tissue can mask suspicious lesions. A measure of the degree of masking expected for a mammogram could be useful for informing the decision to direct some women to supplemental imaging procedures not affected by density. Here, we present an adaptation of a model observer to estimate the detection task SNR, d local, of a lesion embedded in various portions of the breast to indicate the level of detection difficulty. Rank correlation of mean mammogram d local with density category is ρ=–0.58. Correlation of fractional area of mammograms with low d local < 2 versus density category is ρ=0.61. This suggests that a metric based on d local may be useful in quantifying masking effects of breast density.
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution.
Buying options
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
Learn about institutional subscriptionsPreview
Unable to display preview. Download preview PDF.
References
Boyd, N.F., Martin, L.J., Stone, J., Greenberg, C., Minkin, S., Yaffe, M.J.: Mammographic densities as a marker of human breast cancer risk and their use in chemoprevention. Curr. Oncol. Rep. 3, 314–321 (2001)
Byng, J.W., Yaffe, M.J., Jong, R.A., Shumak, R.S., Lockwood, G.A., Tritchler, D.L., Boyd, N.F.: Analysis of mammographic density and breast cancer risk from digitized mammograms. Radiographics 18, 1587–1598 (1998)
Carney, P.A., Miglioretti, D.L., Yankaskas, B.C., Kerlikowske, K., Rosenberg, R., Rutter, C.M., Geller, B.M., Abraham, L.A., Taplin, S.H., Dignan, M., Cutter, G., Ballard-Barbash, R.: Individual and combined effects of age, breast density, and hormone replacement therapy use on the accuracy of screening mammography. Ann. Intern. Med. 138, 168–175 (2003)
Mainprize, J.G., Yaffe, M.J.: Cascaded analysis of signal and noise propagation through a heterogeneous breast model. Med. Phys. 37, 5243–5250 (2010)
Alonzo-Proulx, O., Packard, N., Boone, J.M., Al-Mayah, A., Brock, K.K., Shen, S.Z., Yaffe, M.J.: Validation of a method for measuring the volumetric breast density from digital mammograms. Phys. Med. Biol. 55, 3027–3044 (2010)
Boone, J.M., Cooper, V.N.: Scatter/primary in mammography: Monte Carlo validation. Med. Phys. 27, 1818–1831 (2000)
Samei, E., Flynn, M.J., Reimann, D.A.: A method for measuring the presampled MTF of digital radiographic systems using an edge test device. Med. Phys. 25, 102–113 (1998)
Reiser, I., Lee, S., Nishikawa, R.M.: On the orientation of mammographic structure. Med. Phys. 38, 5303–5306 (2011)
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2014 Springer International Publishing Switzerland
About this paper
Cite this paper
Mainprize, J.G., Wang, X., Ge, M., Yaffe, M.J. (2014). Towards a Quantitative Measure of Radiographic Masking by Dense Tissue in Mammography. In: Fujita, H., Hara, T., Muramatsu, C. (eds) Breast Imaging. IWDM 2014. Lecture Notes in Computer Science, vol 8539. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-07887-8_26
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-07887-8_26
Publisher Name: Springer, Cham
Print ISBN: 978-3-319-07886-1
Online ISBN: 978-3-319-07887-8
eBook Packages: Computer ScienceComputer Science (R0)