Improving the spatial resolution characteristics of dedicated cone-beam breast CT technology

Prior studies have shown that breast CT (bCT) outperforms mammography in the visualization of mass lesions, yet underperforms in the detection of micro-calcifications. The Breast Tomography Project at UC Davis has successively developed and fabricated four dedicated breast CT scanners, the most recent code-named Doheny, that produce high resolution, fully tomographic images, and overcome the tissue superposition effects of mammography at equivalent radiation dose. Over 600 patients have been imaged thus far in an ongoing clinical trial. The Doheny prototype differs from prior bCT generations in its usage of a pulsed rather than continuous x-ray source and in its utilization of a CMOS flat-panel fluoroscopic detector rather than TFT. Spatial Resolution analysis performed on Doheny indicates that the MTF characteristics have been substantially improved.