Journal
PHYSICA MEDICA-EUROPEAN JOURNAL OF MEDICAL PHYSICS
Volume 94, Issue -, Pages 65-74Publisher
ELSEVIER SCI LTD
DOI: 10.1016/j.ejmp.2021.12.019
Keywords
Breast ultrasound quality assurance; Contrast detail; Anechoic target detection; And clinically relevant phantoms
Funding
- Higher Education Authority (Ireland) Strand I-2006 grant
- Research Support Unit of the Dublin Institute of Technology
- Irish Association of Medical Physics
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The study aims to develop contrast-detail and anechoic-target phantoms for performance testing of breast ultrasound equipment. The results indicate the importance of using appropriate targets in ultrasound phantoms and the comprehensive assessment provided by the spherical lesion phantoms coupled with the quantitative metric of lesion-signal-noise-ratio (LSNR) for evaluating advanced ultrasound imaging modes and technologies.
Purpose: Contrast-detail (C-D) and anechoic-target (A-T) detectability are measures of an ultrasound scanner's ability to image lesions of varying contrast and size from background tissue and, as such, they are important tools for grading the imaging capabilities of ultrasound scanners. The objective of this study was to develop a range of contrast-and anechoic-detail phantoms with clinically relevant lesions, of various contrast and sizes, for performance testing of breast ultrasound equipment. Methods: Tissue mimicking materials that represent the acoustic properties of breast fibroglandular tissue were produced and moulded to construct a range of C-D and A-T phantoms. Two phantom designs were produced, containing cylindrical and spherical targets. Both phantom types were constructed with contrast targets covering the range anechoic,-1,-2,-3 and-4 dB, with lesion diameters of 1-4 mm, positioned at four clinically relevant depths (10, 25, 40 and 55 mm). An image analysis program was developed to objectively analyse the lesion images and to determine the lesion-signal-noise-ratio (LSNR). Results: Both phantoms were used to evaluate the performance of a breast ultrasound scanner. The use of cylindrical phantoms led to an artificially higher image quality performance compared with the more clinically relevant spherical lesion phantom, thus indicating the importance of using the appropriate targets in ultrasound phantoms. Conclusion: The spherical lesion phantoms, coupled with the quantitative metric of LSNR, provides a comprehensive approach for performance and quality control testing, as well as the evaluation of advanced ultrasound imaging modes and technologies.
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