Oliver Richard Astley

Fusion of digital mammography with breast ultrasound: a phantom study

The objective of this work was to acquire co-registered digital tomosynthesis mammograms and 3-D breast ultrasound images of breast phantoms. A prototype mammography compression paddle was built for this application and installed on an x-ray tomosynthesis prototype system (GE). Following x-ray exposure, an automated two-dimensional ultrasound probe mover assembly is precisely positioned above the compression plate, and an attached high-frequency ultrasound transducer is scanned over the acoustically coupled phantom or localized region of interest within the phantom through computerized control. The co-ordinate system of one of the two data sets is then transformed into that of the other, and matching regions of interest on either image set can be simultaneously viewed on the x-ray and ultrasound images thus enhancing qualitative visualization, localization and characterization of regions of interest. The potentials of structured noise reduction, cyst versus solid mass differentiation and full 3-D visualization of multi-modality registered data sets in a single automated combined examination are realized for the first time. Elements of system design and required image correction algorithms will be described and phantom studies with this prototype, automated system on an anthropomorphic breast phantom will be presented.