Image quality in synthetic mammograms obtained from 15◦ and 40◦ digital breast tomosynthesis: a preliminary comparative phantom study.

The aim of this phantom study was to perform an image quality comparison between synthe- sized mammograms reconstructed from digital breast tomosynthesis acquisitions with 15◦ (SM15) and 40◦ (SM40) X-ray tube angular range in a commercial system. In order to investigate the spatial resolution, contrast and noise properties of the images, the Modu- lation Transfer Function (MTF), the image contrast, the Signal-to-Noise Ratio (SNR) and the Contrast-Detail (CD) curves were evaluated. Our results showed that SM40 images expressed higher MTF than SM15, but similar contrast values and lower SNR levels. Addi- tionally, lower CD performances were found for SM40 with respect to SM15