Development of mammography system using CdTe photon counting detector for the exposure dose reduction

Sho Maruyama; Naoko Niwa; Misaki Yamazaki; Tsutomu Yamakawa; Tatsuya Nagano; Yoshie Kodera

doi:10.1117/12.2042994

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19 March 2014 Development of mammography system using CdTe photon counting detector for the exposure dose reduction

Sho Maruyama, Naoko Niwa, Misaki Yamazaki, Tsutomu Yamakawa, Tatsuya Nagano, Yoshie Kodera

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Proceedings Volume 9033, Medical Imaging 2014: Physics of Medical Imaging; 903345 (2014) https://doi.org/10.1117/12.2042994
Event: SPIE Medical Imaging, 2014, San Diego, California, United States

Abstract

We propose a new mammography system using a cadmium telluride (CdTe) photon-counting detector for exposure dose reduction. In contrast to conventional mammography, this system uses high-energy X-rays. This study evaluates the usefulness of this system in terms of the absorbed dose distribution and contrast-to-noise ratio (CNR) at acrylic step using a Monte Carlo simulation. In addition, we created a prototype system that uses a CdTe detector and automatic movement stage. For various conditions, we measured the properties and evaluated the quality of images produced by the system. The simulation result for a tube voltage of 40 kV and tungsten/barium (W/Ba) as a target/filter shows that the surface dose was reduced more than 60% compared to that under conventional conditions. The CNR of our proposal system also became higher than that under conventional conditions. The point at which the CNRs coincide for 4 cm polymethyl methacrylate (PMMA) at the 2-mm-thick step corresponds to a dose reduction of 30%, and these differences increased with increasing phantom thickness. To improve the image quality, we determined the problematic aspects of the scanning system. The results of this study indicate that, by using a higher X-ray energy than in conventional mammography, it is possible to obtain a significant exposure dose reduction without loss of image quality. Further, the image quality of the prototype system can be improved by optimizing the balance between the shift-and-add operation and the output of the X-ray tube. In future work, we will further examine these improvement points.

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Sho Maruyama, Naoko Niwa, Misaki Yamazaki, Tsutomu Yamakawa, Tatsuya Nagano, and Yoshie Kodera "Development of mammography system using CdTe photon counting detector for the exposure dose reduction", Proc. SPIE 9033, Medical Imaging 2014: Physics of Medical Imaging, 903345 (19 March 2014); https://doi.org/10.1117/12.2042994

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