Experimental evaluation of the MGD for digital mammography and tomosynthesis estimated from patient exposures and using PMMA breast phantoms in Brazil

The objective of this work is to present the results for quality control tests applied to projection images acquisition in digital mammography and breast tomosynthesis (DBT). Mean glandular doses (MGD) were measured for the examination of series of women and for breast-simulating polymethyl methacrylate phantoms, thus assessing the suitability of the phantoms used for dosimetry in 2D mammography for DBT dosimetry. Moreover, X-ray tube output and half value layer measurements for MGD estimation using phantoms are also presented. Three different mammography/DBT systems were considered in this work: Hologic Selenia Dimensions, General Electric Senoclaire and Pristina and Siemens Inspiration. The results obtained for the different projections were compared with the 2D acquisitions and the differences between the two image modalities were compared.