Comparison of photon-counting to storage phosphor plate mammography using contrast-detail phantom analysis

Two digital mammography systems, one based on scanning photon counting silicon detectors and the other on storage phosphor plates (CR), have been compared in terms of image quality and dose. Sets of images of a contrast-detail phantom (CDMAM3.4) were acquired for each system and dose level. The images were evaluated in the disc diameter range 0.16-1 mm using a computer program (CDcom) and the results were fitted to a psychometric curve for each disc diameter. The contrast-detail curve was summarized into one single figure of merit, the image quality index, and the dose efficiency was calculated. The errors of the calculated parameters were assessed using statistical analysis. It was found that the scanning photon-counting system can achieve the same image quality as the storage phosphor plate (CR) system at 30-38% of the average glandular dose.