Breast microcalcifications are an important primary radiological indicator of breast cancer. However, microcalcification classification and diagnosis may be still challenging for radiologists due to limitations of the standard 2D mammography technique, including spatial and contrast resolution. In this study, we propose an approach to improve the detection of microcalcifications in propagation-based phase-contrast X-ray computed tomography of breast tissues. Five fresh mastectomies containing microcalcifications were scanned at different X-ray energies and radiation doses using synchrotron radiation. Both bright-field (i.e. conventional phase-retrieved images) and dark-field images were extracted from the same data sets using different image processing methods. A quantitative analysis was performed in terms of visibility and contrast-to-noise ratio of microcalcifications. The results show that while the signal-to-noise and the contrast-to-noise ratios are lower, the visibility of the microcalcifications is more than two times higher in the dark-field images compared to the bright-field images. Dark-field images have also provided more accurate information about the size and shape of the microcalcifications.

中文翻译：

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在基于传播的相衬层析成像中使用暗场信号对乳房微钙化进行成像

乳腺微钙化是乳腺癌重要的主要放射学指标。然而，由于标准 2D 乳腺 X 线摄影技术（包括空间分辨率和对比度分辨率）的局限性，微钙化分类和诊断对于放射科医生来说可能仍然具有挑战性。在这项研究中，我们提出了一种方法来改进乳腺组织基于传播的相衬 X 射线计算机断层扫描中微钙化的检测。使用同步辐射在不同的 X 射线能量和辐射剂量下扫描了五个含有微钙化的新鲜乳房切除术。明场（即传统的相位恢复图像）和暗场图像都是使用不同的图像处理方法从相同的数据集中提取的。根据微钙化的可见性和对比度噪声比进行定量分析。结果表明，虽然信噪比和对比度噪声比较低，但与明场图像相比，暗场图像中微钙化的可见度高两倍以上。暗场图像还提供了有关微钙化的大小和形状的更准确信息。