How do lesion size and random noise affect detection performance in digital mammography?
RATIONALE AND OBJECTIVES: We investigated the effect of random noise and lesion size on detection performance in mammography. MATERIALS AND METHODS: Digital mammograms were obtained of an anthropomorphic breast phantom with and without simulated mass lesions. Digital versions of the mass lesions, ranging in size from 0.8 to 12 mm, were added back to the breast phantom image. Four alternate forced choice experiments were performed to determine the lesion contrast required to achieve a 92% correct lesion detection rate, denoted I92. Experiments were performed using identical phantom images and different versions of phantom images obtained using the same techniques but with different random noise patterns. RESULTS: For lesions larger than 1 mm, the slope of the contrast detail curves was always positive. This behavior contrasts with conventional contrast-detail curves in uniform backgrounds in which the slope is approximately -0.5. There was no difference between twinned experiments and t
