Two papers presented at the AAPM Annual Meeting addressed the role of volumetric breast density assessment software in estimating the radiation dose received during breast screenings.

Currently, mammography systems generate a Mean Glandular Dose (MGD) based on an assumption of a homogeneous mixture of fat and fibroglandular tissue in standard proportions.  

The first study, “Patient Specific Average Glandular Dose in Mammography,” demonstrated the differences in radiation dose estimation when researchers adjusted the estimation according to the actual volumetric breast density. The initial results suggest that current dose estimations might underestimate the actual patient MGD as they do not account for the specific breast tissue composition. The authors for this paper were: Mariela A. Porras-Chaverri, Department of Medical Physics, University of Wisconsin-Madison; John R. Vetter, School of Physics, University of Costa Rica; and Ralph Highnam, Matakina International.

The second study, “Retrospective Determination of Personalized Mean Glandular Dose Coefficients for Conventional Mammography Using Heterogeneously-layered Breast Models,” by Mariela Porras-Chaverri, took personalization one stage further by not only using the patient-specific volumetric breast density, but also considering how the tissue might be dispersed within the breast. Ralph Highnam also assisted in the research.

The papers both used the volumetric breast density numbers generated by Matakina’s Volpara Imaging Software to calculate personalized or patient-specific dose estimates.