EVALUATION OF MAMMOGRAPHY IMAGE QUALITY PHANTOMS

A strategy for the quantitative evaluation of mammography image quality phantoms is described and illustrated by the evaluation of a new design of phantom, the TOR(MAM). The performance criteria assessed were sensitivity and measurement uncertainty. Sensitivity was assessed as the response of the image quality (IQ) score to changes in kV, scatter thickness below the phantom, and by use with a range of clinical systems. The measurement uncertainty was measured as the inter- and intra-observer errors from repeated measurements on 12 mammography systems by 5 observers. The IQ score was found to be very sensitive to changes in image quality but had large observer errors.