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Incomplete skin representation in digital mammograms
Author(s) -
Burgess Arthur E.,
Kang Haejin
Publication year - 2004
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 - 10.1118/1.1796091
Subject(s) - digital mammography , imaging phantom , enhanced data rates for gsm evolution , representation (politics) , detector , computer science , nuclear medicine , artificial intelligence , computer vision , mammography , medicine , breast cancer , cancer , politics , political science , law , telecommunications
Flat‐panel digital detector systems have limited dynamic range and saturate at a particular x‐ray exposure. Hence some of the breast edge may not be represented in the displayed image. We developed a model to estimate the amount of skin loss. Model predictions agreed well with phantom measurements. In our database of 884 clinical digital mammograms, 98% had saturated backgrounds. The estimated skin loss exceeded 0.5 mm in 5% of images and 1.0 mm in 0.7% of images. Any skin thickening that is present should still be visualized, so we conclude that any skin‐line loss may not be of clinical significance.