Tomographic images of breast tissues obtained by Compton scattering: An analytical computational study

In this work, we studied by analytical simulation the potential of a Compton scatter technique for breast imaging application. A Compton scattering tomography system was computationally simulated in order to provide the projection data (scattering signal) for the image reconstructions. The simulated projections generated by the analytical proposed method were validated through comparison with those obtained by Monte Carlo simulation. Electron density images were obtained from the scattering signal using a reconstruction algorithm implemented for the system geometry. Finally, the quality of the reconstructed images was evaluated for different sample sizes, beam energies, and tissue compositions (glandularities). - Highlights: • An analytical computational simulation of Compton scattering tomography was studied. • Results of simulations were compared with those obtained by Monte Carlo simulation. • A reconstruction algorithm was implemented for reconstructing the scattering images. • Electron density images of breast tissues (simulated breast phantom) were obtained. • Influence of parameters (sample size, beam energy and glandularity) was studied.