Optimization of anti-scatter grids for digital mammography: A comparative study using Monte Carlo simulations

IF 1.8 3区物理与天体物理 Q2 NUCLEAR SCIENCE & TECHNOLOGY

Radiation Measurements Pub Date : 2025-12-01 Epub Date: 2025-10-01 DOI:10.1016/j.radmeas.2025.107533

Kimia Gharehkhani , Mehdi Shojaei , Saeed Setayeshi

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引用次数: 0

Abstract

Mammography image quality is often compromised by scattered radiation, which reduces diagnostic accuracy. Anti-scatter grids with various designs are employed to mitigate this issue. The choice of these designs significantly impacts the reduction of scattered radiation and the transmission of primary photons, thereby improving image quality without necessitating increased patient radiation exposure. This study aims to investigate various anti-scatter grid designs for digital mammography (DM) systems by maximizing the signal-to-noise ratio improvement factor (SIF) and minimizing the scatter-to-primary ratio (SPR) across different material compositions to identify the most effective grid design.

In this study, a mammography system and breast phantom were simulated using the Monte Carlo toolkit Geant4. A total of 450 cellular anti-scatter grid configurations were modeled, comprising copper, gold, and lead designs with varying grid parameters. The impacts of varying the grid ratios (GR) and strip frequencies on SPR, SIF, and transmission factors for scattered (T_s) and primary (T_p) were quantified. Synthetic mammograms from the Monte-Carlo outputs were generated and contrast-to-noise ratio (CNR) was computed as from paired signal/background region-of-interest (ROI), in the center of the phantom.

An optimal configuration in our study was a copper grid (GR 3:1, septal thickness 0.005 mm, 35 lines/cm), yielding SIF = 1.09, SPR = 0.06, T_p = 0.75, and T_s = 0.07. Relative to gold and lead, copper grids exhibited higher SIF and T_p; however, gold grids produced the highest CNR (Au ≈ 23.29). Lead grids marginally outperformed gold grids on aggregate transmission/scatter metrics but not on CNR. The proposed grid designs significantly reduced scattered radiation while enhancing image quality metrics, showing promising potential for clinical translation.

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数字乳房x线摄影的反散射网格优化：使用蒙特卡罗模拟的比较研究

乳房x光检查的图像质量经常受到散射辐射的影响，从而降低了诊断的准确性。采用不同设计的防散射网格来缓解这一问题。这些设计的选择显著影响了散射辐射的减少和主要光子的传输，从而提高了图像质量，而无需增加患者的辐射暴露。本研究旨在通过最大化不同材料成分的信噪比改善因子（SIF）和最小化散射与原始比（SPR）来研究数字乳房x线摄影（DM）系统的各种抗散射网格设计，以确定最有效的网格设计。在这项研究中，使用蒙特卡罗工具包Geant4模拟乳房x线照相术系统和乳房假体。总共建模了450个细胞抗散射网格配置，包括不同网格参数的铜、金和铅设计。量化了栅格比（GR）和条带频率对散射（Ts）和初级（Tp）的SPR、SIF和传输系数的影响。从蒙特卡罗输出生成合成乳房x线照片，并根据幻象中心的成对信号/背景感兴趣区域（ROI）计算对比度-噪声比（CNR）。在我们的研究中，最佳配置是铜网格（GR 3:1，间隔厚度0.005 mm， 35线/cm），产生SIF = 1.09, SPR = 0.06, Tp = 0.75, Ts = 0.07。相对于金和铅，铜栅格具有更高的SIF和Tp；而金栅格的CNR最高（Au≈23.29）。铅网在总体传输/分散指标上略微优于金网，但在CNR上则不然。提出的网格设计显着减少了散射辐射，同时提高了图像质量指标，显示出临床翻译的良好潜力。

本文章由计算机程序翻译，如有差异，请以英文原文为准。

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来源期刊

Radiation Measurements 工程技术-核科学技术

CiteScore

4.10

自引率

20.00%

发文量

116

审稿时长

48 days

期刊介绍： The journal seeks to publish papers that present advances in the following areas: spontaneous and stimulated luminescence (including scintillating materials, thermoluminescence, and optically stimulated luminescence); electron spin resonance of natural and synthetic materials; the physics, design and performance of radiation measurements (including computational modelling such as electronic transport simulations); the novel basic aspects of radiation measurement in medical physics. Studies of energy-transfer phenomena, track physics and microdosimetry are also of interest to the journal. Applications relevant to the journal, particularly where they present novel detection techniques, novel analytical approaches or novel materials, include: personal dosimetry (including dosimetric quantities, active/electronic and passive monitoring techniques for photon, neutron and charged-particle exposures); environmental dosimetry (including methodological advances and predictive models related to radon, but generally excluding local survey results of radon where the main aim is to establish the radiation risk to populations); cosmic and high-energy radiation measurements (including dosimetry, space radiation effects, and single event upsets); dosimetry-based archaeological and Quaternary dating; dosimetry-based approaches to thermochronometry; accident and retrospective dosimetry (including activation detectors), and dosimetry and measurements related to medical applications.