Dual-Energy dividing mammography

The cancers exhibit a higher effective atomic number than the normal tissue The aim of this study was to improve early detection of microcalcifications, which are the earliest indicators of breast cancer, and to get a better definition of the cancer boundary on the base of visualization of an effective atomic number distribution Dual-energy subtraction mammography may provide information regarding the product of the atomic number, density and thickness of the breast tissue The paper presents the dual-energy dividing mammography which is based on the dividing of the logarithms of the low-energy image by the high-energy image That ratio depends upon only an effective atomic number and does not depend on the density and the thickness of the breast The study shows that the visualization of that ratio improves the detection of microcalcifications and the sharpness of the breast image.