A proposal for a quality control protocol in breast CT with synchrotron radiation

Area of Science:

• Medical Imaging
• Synchrotron Radiation Technology
• Radiographic Phantoms

Background:

• The SYRMA-3D collaboration is initiating the first clinical trial of phase-contrast breast CT using synchrotron radiation.
• This study introduces a quality control protocol for breast CT imaging.
• A custom radiographic phantom was developed for initial image quality assessments.

Purpose of the Study:

• To propose and validate a quality control protocol for phase-contrast breast CT.
• To assess the image quality of synchrotron radiation breast CT using a custom phantom.
• To evaluate the feasibility and reproducibility of image quality measurements.

Main Methods:

• Acquisition of projection data from a custom radiographic phantom containing water and inserts.
• CT reconstruction of phantom portions to evaluate image quality parameters.
• Systematic measurements of CT number linearity, accuracy, uniformity, noise, and low contrast resolution at varying beam energies and doses.

Main Results:

• High accuracy and good linearity in CT number reconstruction for soft tissues were observed.
• Image uniformity and noise levels were within acceptable limits (a few percent of average pixel values).
• Low contrast detectability was found to be dependent on the beam energy, performing better at higher energies.

Conclusions:

• The developed quality control protocol and phantom are feasible, reproducible, and yield satisfactory results.
• The phantom shows promise for quality assurance in the upcoming clinical trial.
• Further optimization of beam energy may enhance low contrast detectability in breast CT.