A new study published in the journal Radiology reports that digital mammography screening with a photon-counting technique offers high diagnostic performance. “Digital Mammography Screening with Photon-counting Technique: Can a High Diagnostic Performance Be Realized at Low Mean Glandular Dose?” details how the digital radiography approach uses a detector to decrease scattered radiation and noise, reducing dose and improving image quality.
For the study, Walter Heindel, MD, of the University Hospital Muenster in Muenster, Germany, analyzed data from a mammography screening program in North Rhine-Westphalia, the most populous state in Germany. From 2009 to 2010, 13,312 women were examined using the photon-counting system and 993,822 women were screened with either CR or DR systems alone.
Researchers found that the photon-counting method demonstrated a cancer detection rate of 0.76% for subsequent screening, compared to 0.59% for the other screening techniques. The recall rate was 5.4% for the photon-counting method and 3.4% for other methods. In addition, the photon-counting technique had almost twice the detection rate of other methods for ductal carcinoma in situ (DCIS), an early, noninvasive form of disease. Automatic exposure control also enabled lower mean average glandular radiation dose for the photon-counting system compared to convention DR systems.
“In population-based mammography screening, dose reducing techniques that don’t compromise outcome parameters are desirable,” said Heindel. “The innovative photon-counting technique offers further research potential. One future direction is the application of spectral imaging for quantification of breast glandular tissue, addressing the problem of breast density.”
The study’s authors included Heindel, Stefanie Weigel, MD, Shoma Berkemeyer, PhD; Ralf Girnus, MSc; Alexander Sommer, MSc; and Horst Lenzen, MSc. Radiology is a publication of the Radiological Society of North America.
