A scatter correction method for dual-energy digital mammography: Monte Carlo simulation

Area of Science:

• Medical Imaging
• Radiology
• Image Processing

Background:

• Scatter radiation in dual-energy digital mammography (DEDM) degrades image quality and reduces the detectability of microcalcifications.
• Existing scatter correction methods may involve additional patient dose or complex hardware implementations.

Purpose of the Study:

• To develop a novel, dose-free scatter correction method for DEDM.
• To improve microcalcification detectability in dual-energy X-ray subtraction images by reducing scatter impacts.

Main Methods:

• A new scatter correction strategy leveraging the low spatial frequency of scatter and sparse distribution of calcifications.
• Utilized an adaptive sampling scheme to identify non-calcification pixels.
• Employed the maximum likelihood expectation maximization (MLEM) algorithm and dual-energy computational formulas with zero calcification and scatter surface constraints.

Main Results:

• Significantly reduced scatter-to-primary ratio (SPR) in both low-energy (LE) and high-energy (HE) images for phantom studies.
• SPR reduced from ~36.0% to ~3.1% (LE) and ~29.6% to ~0.6% (HE) for wedge phantom.
• Calcification contrast-to-noise ratio improved by two orders of magnitude.

Conclusions:

• The proposed method effectively reduces scatter and enhances calcification detection in DEDM.
• This software-based approach requires no extra radiation exposure and is easily implemented compared to hardware solutions.