TASK SPECIFIC EVALUATION METHODOLOGY FOR CLINICAL FULL FIELD DIGITAL MAMMOGRAPHY

Purpose: The purpose of this dissertation is to evaluate the image quality of clinical Full Field Digital Mammography (FFDM) systems. This is done by evaluating image ac-quisition performance of clinical FFDM in a comprehensive way that accounts for scatter, focal spot un-sharpness, detector blur and anti-scatter grid performance using an anthro-pomorphic phantom. Additionally we intend to provide a limited evaluation of the effects that image processing in clinical FFDM has in signal detectability. Methodology: We explored different strategies and a variety of mathematical model observers in order to evaluate the performance of clinical FFDM systems under different conditions. To evaluate image acquisition performance, we tested a system-model-based Hotelling observer (SMHO) model on a bench-top system using a uniform anthropomor-phic phantom for an signal known exactly background known exactly (SKE/BKE) task. We then applied this concept on two clinical FFDM systems to compare their perfor-mance. In a limited study to evaluate the effects of image processing in the detectability of FFDM, we implemented the channelized Hotelling observer (CHO) model on clinically realistic images of an anatomical phantom for an SKE/BKE task