Assessment of photon compton scattering method for the characterization of tissue substitute materials

This work investigates the feasibility of using scattered radiation to characterize breast tissue substitute materials. The object was to explore the ability of the method to provide electron density information in support of the introduction of new tissue substitute materials for mammography phantom. The quantities of interest in using Compton scattering intensity are identified and para metrical procedures, to measure tissue electron density, are developed by employing a highly collimated monoenergetic X-ray beam. Experimental results from phantom material studies indicate that the reproducibility of the proposed method is 2% and its accuracy is about 4%. In addition, measured differences between different samples are promising for providing greater sensitivity to chances in tis se type than direct linear attenuation coefficient measurements. (author)