SYSTEM AND METHOD FOR LOW X-RAY DOSE BREAST DENSITY EVALUATION
First Claim
1. A compression assembly for compressing a breast in use with a mammography system, comprising:
- a rigid plate;
at least one spacer coupled to the rigid plate and sized such that the spacer maintains the rigid plate in a substantially parallel alignment at a fixed distance from a breast support plate of an x-ray mammography system, thereby providing a region for receiving and compressing a breast at a substantially uniform thickness.
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Accused Products
Abstract
A system and method for measuring volumetric breast density using a low dose of radiation are provided. This low-dose image can be added to a standard mammographic screening protocol with less than a two percent increase in radiation dose imparted to the subject. This low-dose image can also be used as a single standalone test to determine breast density for younger women for the purposes of risk determination or screening regimen planning The breast density measurement is more accurate than measurements that can be obtained with existing systems and methods by making use of a compression assembly that maintains a parallel alignment between the compression paddle and breast support table. Additionally, the compression assembly maintains a uniform known thickness of the compressed breast. The system and method have the added benefit that they can be readily implemented on a conventional digital x-ray unit with low cost.
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Citations
20 Claims
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1. A compression assembly for compressing a breast in use with a mammography system, comprising:
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a rigid plate; at least one spacer coupled to the rigid plate and sized such that the spacer maintains the rigid plate in a substantially parallel alignment at a fixed distance from a breast support plate of an x-ray mammography system, thereby providing a region for receiving and compressing a breast at a substantially uniform thickness. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12)
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13. A method for measuring a density of a subject'"'"'s breast with a mammography system, the steps of the method comprising:
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a) compressing the subject'"'"'s breast to a defined uniform thickness using a rigid compression paddle that is parallel to a breast support plate and spaced apart from the breast support plate at a fixed distance by at least one spacer; b) acquiring data with the mammography system by exposing the compressed breast to x-rays that traverse the rigid compression paddle before traversing the compressed breast and impinging upon an image plane of an x-ray detector; c) determining attenuation values from the acquired data at all points in the image plane; d) converting the determined attenuation values to mammographic density values; e) estimating volumetric density content by; i) calculating a total volume of dense tissue by summing the mammographic density values across a total volume of the breast; and ii) dividing the total volume of dense tissue by the total volume of the breast. - View Dependent Claims (14, 15, 16, 17, 18)
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19. A compression assembly for compressing a breast in use with a mammography system, comprising:
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a rigid compression paddle; a support plate; a parallel linkage device coupled to the rigid compression paddle and configured to maintain the rigid compression paddle and the support plate in a parallel alignment; and wherein the parallel linkage is configured to maintain the rigid compression paddle and the support plate at a substantially uniform separation distance when in a configuration for compressing a subject'"'"'s breast. - View Dependent Claims (20)
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Specification