Radiology, Vol 168, 657-659, Copyright © 1988 by Radiological Society of North America
Comparison of two screen-film combinations in contact and magnification mammography: detectability of microcalcifications
JW Oestmann, DB Kopans, L Linetsky, DA Hall, KA McCarthy, G White, C Swann, JE Kelley and LL Johnson
Department of Radiology, Massachusetts General Hospital, Boston.
A new dual-screen, dual-emulsion-film combination that allows a decrease in
radiation dose of approximately 66% was compared with a widely used
single-screen, single-emulsion-film system in contact and magnification
mammography. Clustered microcalcifications randomly superimposed on a
breast phantom were detected, and the location and number of individual
calcifications were determined by four observers. The detectability of
calcifications, determined with a receiver operating characteristic (ROC)
analysis area, was 0.92 for magnification and 0.82 for contact mammography
with the single-emulsion- film system, compared with 0.84 and 0.72,
respectively, with the dual- emulsion-film system. More clusters were
correctly located and more individual calcifications were counted with
magnification than with contact mammography. The dual-emulsion-film system
with the magnification technique performs as well as the
single-emulsion-film system with the contact technique, while retaining a
decrease in required dose of approximately 40%.
