X-Photon-to-Information Conversion Efficiency in Digital Telemammography

摘要

Imaging techniques used for diagnosis and detection of breast cancer are all performed by deforming the breast. This deformation permits improved diagnostic imaging of the breast, however, the imaging techniques do not take into account the biomechanical nature of breast tissue. This is largely due to the fact that the biomechanical behavior of breast tissue is not fully understood. Since malignant masses tend to be stiffer than normal tissue, an understanding of the normal and pathological biomechanical nature of breast tissue may provide more accurate discrimination of breast masses. Also, an understanding of the biomechanical properties of breast tissue may be used to develop more accurate breast models. The purpose of our study was to noninvasively characterize the in vivo force-deformation behavior of normal breast tissue under static compressive loads, with the aim of performing finite element computer simulations of tissue deformations. We present a new method to obtain in vivo deformation data by using magnetic resonance imaging to detect displacement. With small incremental compressions, corresponding displacement can be easily mapped between deformed (compressed) and undeformed (uncompressed) images. Material properties of breast tissue were evaluated by fitting the uniaxial compression data to various constitutive SEDF models.