Comparison study of task-based detectability index according to angular distribution in a prototype breast tomosynthesis

Quantitative imaging performance analysis has recently been the focus in medical imaging fields. It would not only provide objective information but also it could aid a patient diagnosis by giving optimized system parameters for various imaging tasks. However, the previous studies on task-based metric in breast tomosynthesis usually take into account a cascaded system modeling for generalized noise equivalent quanta. In this study, the authors have been focused on the experimental study for calculating task-based detectability index (d') in the prototype breast tomosynthesis system for different angular ranges. According to the summarized d' the authors observed that the highest d' could be found in the angular range of +/- 10.5 degrees (1.5 degrees angle step) among several cases for detection of 4.7 mm mass in our prototype breast tomosynthesis system. Our study would be easily applied in practical breast tomosynthesis for the quantitative performance analysis of imaging parameter is needed. More various imaging tasks with different parameter combinations would be conducted in the future for generalized optimization of breast tomosynthesis study.