Calculation of the properties of digital mammograms using a computer simulation

A Monte Carlo computer model of mammography has been developed to study and optimise the performance of digital mammographic systems. The program uses high-resolution voxel phantoms to model the breast, which simulate the adipose and fibroglandular tissues, Cooper's ligaments, ducts and skin in three dimensions. The model calculates the dose to each tissue, and also the quantities such as energy imparted to image pixels, noise per image pixel and scatter-to-primary (S/P) ratios. It allows studies of the dependence of image properties on breast structure and on position within the image. The program has been calibrated by calculating and measuring the pixel values and noise for a digital mammographic system. The thicknesses of two components of this system were unknown, and were adjusted to obtain a good agreement between measurement and calculation. The utility of the program is demonstrated with the calculations of the variation of the S/P ratio with and without a grid, and of the image contrast across the image of a 50-mm-thick breast phantom.