Image quality of mammographic systems

The image quality in mammography was evaluated for all the 56 equipment-image receptor combinations used in Finland with two phantoms containing test objects of three types and different sizes. We obtained 2-8 fold variations for the smallest sizes of the three objects (specks, fibres and masses) visible in the X-ray images and 3.0-3.7 fold variations for an "image score". The smallest speck, fibre and mass sizes visible in the radiographs were 0.24, 0.75 and 0.5 mm, respectively. An unacceptable image quality was obtained in 36% of the studied cases. A recommendation is presented.