Automated Spot Mammography for Improved Imaging of Dense Breasts

An automated spot mammography technique was developed to improve the imaging of lesions within dense breast tissue. The initial goal was to build a device that would automatically detect suspicious regions in mammograms and immediately perform spot compression and collimation at that region to produce a second image that better distinguishes masses from overlapping tissues. Preliminary studies with a prototype device and breast simulating test objects showed promise, but spot compression didn't always separate the tissues as much as desired. The authors conceived an improved method that employs three-dimensional stereoscopic digital spot mammography acquisition and display for superior perception and characterization of masses. Automated detection of suspicious regions was evaluated by comparing regions in patients' mammograms selected by radiologists with those selected by a computer program. There was good agreement between the radiologists and the computer. A spot collimator to restrict the x-ray beam to the suspicious region for stereo spot image acquisition was designed, built, tested, and refined. Then preliminary studies were performed on a further evolution of the technique: utilizing tomosynthesis to reconstruct slices of the breast, with the eventual goal of developing automated spot tomosynthesis for enhanced sensitivity and specificity in breast cancer screening.