Relation between mammary gland density, thickness, and average glandular dose in digital mammography
LIU Jie
LIU Peifang
ZHANG Lianlian
SHAO Zhenzhen
ZHANG Hongying
Abstract：Objective To investigate the effect of mammographic density and compression thickness on average glandular dose (AGD). Methods Unilateral breast craniocaudal imaging data and adopt automatic exposure mode from 600 female patients which were collected in October 2008 in our hospital were retrospectively analyzed. According to the BI-RADS standard, the gland densities were divided into four types, including<25%, 25%~50%, 51%~75%, and>75%, with 150 cases each. Each type was divided into < 35 mm, 35~50 mm, and 51~64 mm, according to the breast compression thickness, 50 cases in each group. SPSS 17.0 was used to test the differences in AGD between types/groups of compression thickness and gland density with single factor analysis of variance. Spearman coefficient was used to test the correlation between different gland density, compression thickness, and AGD. Results AGD values were statistically significant different between types/groups of compression thickness and gland density(P<0.001). The values of AGD were increased when increasing breast compression thickness and glandular density. The gland density had greater influence on AGD (r=0.674, P<0.001) than compression thickness did (r=0.456, P<0.001). Conclusion Breast density and compression thickness have close relationship with the AGD in digital mammography. In manual exposure mode or some special circumstances, exposure parameters should be adjusted based on the breast type (gland density and thickness) to reduce the radiation injury without compromising image quality.
Keywords：Digital mammographyAverage glandular doseGland densityCompression thickness
Publication Date：2014-01-01
Online Publishing Date：2025-08-15(First online date of this platform, not the publication date of the document)
Pages：3( 311-313 )