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Updated: Mar 16, 2026
Tracking the Mammary Architectural Features and Detecting Breast Cancer with Magnetic Resonance Diffusion Tensor Imaging
Published on: December 15, 2014
Technical Note: Robust measurement of the slice-sensitivity profile in breast tomosynthesis
Aili K Maki1, James G Mainprize1, Martin J Yaffe2
1Physical Sciences Platform, Sunnybrook Research Institute, 2075 Bayview Avenue, Toronto, Ontario M4N 3M5, Canada.
Purpose:
The purpose of this work is to improve the repeatability of the measurement of the slice-sensitivity profile (SSP) in reconstructed breast tomosynthesis volumes.
Methods:
A grid of aluminum ball-bearings (BBs) within a PMMA phantom was imaged on breast tomosynthesis systems from three different manufacturers. The full-width half-maximum (FWHM) values were measured for the SSPs of the BBs in the reconstructed volumes. The effect of transforming the volumes from a Cartesian coordinate system (CCS) to a cone-beam coordinate system (CBCS) on the variability in the FWHM values was assessed.
Results:
Transforming the volumes from a CCS to a CBCS before measuring the SSPs reduced the coefficient of variation (COV) in the measurements of FWHM in repeated measurements by 56% and reduced the dependence of the FWHM values on the location of the BBs within the reconstructed volume by 76%.
Conclusions:
Measuring the SSP in the volumes in a CBCS improves the robustness of the measurement.
