Preliminary experience with monoenergetic photon mammography

We are using a beam port at the National Synchrotron Light Source facility at Brookhaven National Laboratory as a source of monoenergetic photons. The photon source is radiation from a bending magnet on the X-ray storage ring and provides a usable X-ray spectrum from 5 keV to over 50 keV. A tunable crystal monochromotor is used for energy selection. The beam is 79mm wide and 0.5 mm high. We imaged the ACR mammography phantom and a contrast-detail phantom using a phosphor plate as the unaging detector. Phantom images were obtained at 16, 18, 20 and 22 keV. Phantom thickness varied from 15 mm to 82 mm. These images were compared to images obtained with a conventional dedicated mammography unit. Subjective preliminary results show that image contrast of the monoenergetic images is similar to those obtained from the conventional x-ray source with somewhat sharper and cleaner images from the monoenergetic source. Quantitative analysis shows that the monoenergetic images have improved contrast compared to the polyenergetic derived images. Entrance skin dose measurements show a factor of 5 to 10 times less radiation for the monoenergetic images with equivalent or better contrast Although there remain a number of technical problems to be addressed and much more work to be done, we are encouraged to further explore the use of monoenergetic imaging