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Technical Note: Noise models for virtual clinical trials of digital breast tomosynthesis
Author(s) -
Borges Lucas R.,
Barufaldi Bruno,
Caron Renato F.,
Bakic Predrag R.,
Foi Alessandro,
Maidment Andrew D. A.,
Vieira Marcelo A. C.
Publication year - 2019
Publication title -
medical physics
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.473
H-Index - 180
eISSN - 2473-4209
pISSN - 0094-2405
DOI - 10.1002/mp.13534
Subject(s) - tomosynthesis , medical physics , digital breast tomosynthesis , noise (video) , medical imaging , computer science , digital mammography , mammography , medicine , artificial intelligence , breast cancer , image (mathematics) , cancer
Purpose To investigate the use of an affine‐variance noise model, with correlated quantum noise and spatially dependent quantum gain, for the simulation of noise in virtual clinical trials (VCT) of digital breast tomosynthesis (DBT). Methods Two distinct technologies were considered: an amorphous‐selenium (a‐Se) detector with direct conversion and a thallium‐doped cesium iodide (CsI(Tl)) detector with indirect conversion. A VCT framework was used to generate noise‐free projections of a uniform three‐dimensional simulated phantom, whose geometry and absorption match those of a polymethyl methacrylate (PMMA) uniform physical phantom. The noise model was then used to generate noisy observations from the simulated noise‐free data, while two clinically available DBT units were used to acquire projections of the PMMA physical phantom. Real and simulated projections were then compared using the signal‐to‐noise ratio (SNR) and normalized noise power spectrum (NNPS). Results Simulated images reported errors smaller than 4.4% and 7.0% in terms of SNR and NNPS, respectively. These errors are within the expected variation between two clinical units of the same model. The errors increase to 65.8% if uncorrelated models are adopted for the simulation of systems featuring indirect detection. The assumption of spatially independent quantum gain generates errors of 11.2%. Conclusions The investigated noise model can be used to accurately reproduce the noise found in clinical DBT. The assumption of uncorrelated noise may be adopted if the system features a direct detector with minimal pixel crosstalk.