PATIENT-SPECIFIC NARROW BEAM BREAST CT

项目摘要/摘要 乳腺癌的早期和可靠检测仍然是一项挑战，特别是在患有致密和 丰满的乳房。乳房密度与癌症敏感度和特异度降低有关 已建立的筛查技术中的检测--乳房X光照相和断层合成。专用乳房CT 是这个问题的一个有希望的解决方案，因为它提供了乳房的全面断层成像，而不需要 加压和高质量病变检测。然而，在很大程度上，它还没有被广泛采用 由于三个关键限制。目前可用的专用乳腺CT架构受到有限的限制 微钙化的可见性、高辐射剂量水平和乳房后部覆盖不佳 解剖学。我们的乳房CT新设计是一项专有技术，有效地克服了这些问题 限制。我们通过利用窄束图像采集策略和允许 乳房解剖以决定特定的成像参数。对我们的设计至关重要的是重要的 减少对乳房的辐射剂量，实现近乎无散射的图像采集，从而 增加了微钙化的可见度。我们独特的设计架构便于改进 胸壁解剖的覆盖面和双侧乳房同时成像的可能性 而不需要患者重新定位。我们已进行了一系列初步模拟研究，以 评估这些成果，并已在出版物中报告了结果。在这个第一阶段的项目中，我们寻求 完成我们设计的物理原型，以复制模拟结果。我们的最终产品在 第二阶段的完成将是一项新的专用乳房CT技术，可用于筛查和 诊断应用程序。该产品将作为后续技术插件的平台，例如 综合活检、计算机辅助检测和计算机辅助诊断。

Project Summary/Abstract Early and reliable detection of breast cancer remains a challenge, particularly in women with dense and extremely dense breasts. Breast density is associated with reduced sensitivity and specificity of cancer detection in established screening technologies – mammography and tomosynthesis. Dedicated breast CT is a promising solution to this problem as it provides fully tomographic imaging of the breast without compression and superior mass lesion detection. It has not yet been widely adopted, however, in large part due to three key limitations. Currently available architectures of dedicated breast CT suffer from limited visibility of microcalcifications, high radiation dose levels, and suboptimal coverage of the posterior breast anatomy. Our novel design for breast CT is a proprietary technology that effectively overcomes these limitations. We accomplish this by utilizing narrow-beam image acquisition strategy and allowing the anatomy of the breast to dictate specific imaging parameters. Critical to our design are the significant reduction in radiation dose to breast and achievement of near scatter-free image acquisition, thereby increasing the visibility of microcalcifications. The unique architecture of our design facilitates improved coverage of the chest wall anatomy and the potential for simultaneous bilateral imaging of both breasts without the need for patient repositioning. We have conducted a series of preliminary simulation studies to evaluate these gains and have reported the results in publications. In this Phase 1 project, we seek to complete a physical prototype of our design to replicate the simulation results. Our final product on completion of Phase 2 will be a novel dedicated breast CT technology that can be used for screening and diagnostic applications. This product will serve as a platform for subsequent technology plug-ins such as integrated biopsy, computer aided detection and computer aided diagnosis.