Contrast-enhanced digital mammography (CEDM): phantom experiment and first clinical results

The introduction of the Full Field Digital Mammography (FFDM) opens the way to a large range of future advanced applications. Among them, Contrast Enhanced Digital Mammography (CEDM) could be a fast and less expensive alternative to Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI) for breast lesion characterization. In this work, we have investigated, first on phantom then on patients, the capability of a modified FFDM system to show the contrast enhancement of lesions after intra-venous injection of iodine. The uptake has been estimated from the difference between pre- and post-contrast images. Phantom results showed that 1) detectability thresholds of the contrast media were compatible with clinical conditions; 2) breast radiological thickness has a low impact on uptake detectability; 3) spatial and temporal analysis showed delayed margin contrast uptake of the simulated lesion and slow increase of contrast in the background. Preliminary results on patients have confirmed the phantom results and have shown a contrast uptake in all malignant lesions despite the observed patient motion artifacts, and some moderate signal variability. This study demonstrated the feasibility of the Contrast Enhanced Digital Mammography technique. Further investigations and clinical validations will have to be completed before it can be widely used in a daily routine practice.