A task-based comparison of two reconstruction algorithms for digital breast tomosynthesis
Digital breast tomosynthesis (DBT) generates 3-D reconstructions of the breast by taking X-Ray projections at various angles around the breast. DBT improves cancer detection as it minimizes tissue overlap that is present in traditional 2-D mammography. In this work, two methods of reconstruction, filtered backprojection (FBP) and the Newton-Raphson iterative reconstruction were used to create 3-D reconstructions from phantom images acquired on a breast tomosynthesis system. The task based image analysis method was used to compare the performance of each reconstruction technique. The task simulated a 10mm lesion within the breast containing iodine concentrations between 0.0mg/ml and 8.6mg/ml. The TTF was calculated using the reconstruction of an edge phantom, and the NPS was measured with a structured breast phantom (CIRS 020) over different exposure levels. The detectability index d’was calculated to assess image quality of the reconstructed phantom images. Image quality was assessed for both conventional, single energy and dual energy subtracted reconstructions. Dose allocation between the high and low energy scans was also examined. Over the full range of dose allocations, the iterative reconstruction yielded a higher detectability index than the FBP for single energy reconstructions. For dual energy subtraction, detectability index was maximized when most of the dose was allocated to the high energy image. With that dose allocation, the performance trend for reconstruction algorithms reversed; FBP performed better than the corresponding iterative reconstruction. However, FBP performance varied very erratically with changing dose allocation. Therefore, iterative reconstruction is preferred for both imaging modalities despite underperforming dual energy FBP, as it provides stable results. © 2014 SPIE.
