X-Ray Methods to Estimate Breast Density Content in Breast Tissue

This work focuses on analyzing x-ray methods to estimate the fat and fibroglandular contents in breast biopsies and in breasts. The knowledge of fat in the biopsies could aid in their wide-angle x-ray scatter analyses. A higher mammographic density (fibrous content) in breasts is an indicator of higher cancer risk. Simulations for 5 mm thick breast biopsies composed of fibrous, cancer, and fat and for 4.2 cm thick breast fat/fibrous phantoms were done. Data from experimental studies using plastic biopsies were analyzed. The 5 mm diameter 5 mm thick plastic samples consisted of layers of polycarbonate (lexan), polymethyl methacrylate (PMMA-lucite) and polyethylene (polyet). In terms of the total linear attenuation coefficients, lexan ≡ fibrous, lucite ≡ cancer and polyet ≡ fat. The detectors were of two types, photon counting (CdTe) and energy integrating (CCD).;For biopsies, three photon counting methods were performed to estimate the fat (polyet) using simulation and experimental data, respectively. The two basis function method that assumed the biopsies were composed of two materials, fat and a 50:50 mixture of fibrous (lexan) and cancer (lucite) appears to be the most promising method. Discrepancies were observed between the results obtained via simulation and experiment. Potential causes are the spectrum and the attenuation coefficient values used for simulations.;An energy integrating method was compared to the two basis function method using experimental and simulation data. A slight advantage was observed for photon counting whereas both detectors gave similar results for the 4.2 cm thick breast phantom simulations. The percentage of fibrous within a 9 cm diameter circular phantom of fibrous/fat tissue was estimated via a fan beam geometry simulation. Both methods yielded good results.;Computed tomography (CT) images of the circular phantom were obtained using both detector types. The radon transforms were estimated via four energy integrating techniques and one photon counting technique. Contrast, signal to noise ratio (SNR) and pixel values between different regions of interest were analyzed. The two basis function method and two of the energy integrating methods (calibration, beam hardening correction) gave the highest and more linear curves for contrast and SNR.