| Summary: | The objective of this paper is to measure the radiation dose and image
quality in conventional screen-film mammography and full-field digital
mammography in women referred to mammography examination. Participants
underwent bilateral, two-view screen-film mammography or full-field digital
mammography. The visibility of anatomical regions and overall clinical image
quality was rated by experienced radiologists. Total of 387 women and 1548
mammograms were enrolled in the study. Image quality was assessed in terms of
image quality score, whereas patient dose assessment was performed in terms
of mean glandular dose. Average mean glandular dose for cranio-caudal
projection was 1.5 mGy and 2.1 mGy in full-field digital mammography and
screen-film mammography, respectively. For medio-lateral oblique projection,
corresponding values were 2.3 and 2.1 mGy. Overall image quality criteria
scoring was 0.82 and 0.99 for screen-film and digital systems, respectively.
The scores were in the range from 0.11 to 1.0 for different anatomical
structures. Overall, full-field digital mammography was superior both in
terms of image quality and dose over the screen-film mammography. The results
have indicated that phantom dose values can assist in setting the
optimisation activities in mammography and for comparison between mammography
units. To obtain accurate diagnostic information with an acceptable radiation
dose to breast, it is necessary to periodically perform patient dose and
image quality surveys in all mammography units.
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