Initial clinical experience with a high resolution full field digital mammography system

The resolution requirements of mammography have made it the last area amendable to direct digital imaging. While small area digital detectors based on charge coupled devices have been developed for mammography, full field detectors have not been available. This has changed with the development of amorphous silicon detector technology. The clinical system, developed by GE Medical Systems, images a full field of 18 by 23 centimeters, the same size as a standard small mammography film, with 100 micron pixel size (1800×2300 pixels) and 12 bit quantization per pixel, displayed on commercial high resolution digital monitors with an 8 bit gray scale. A major clinical trial, sponsored by the United States Army, is currently underway at the University of Massachusetts Medical Center and the University of Colorado Health Sciences Center to evaluate the clinical efficacy of the system. Each center is performing screening examinations using both digital imaging and film on 7000 volunteer patients. The digital and film studies are interpreted by different readers and the findings compared. Discrepancies between readings are evaluated for etiology and any necessary additional imaging is performed to resolve the discrepancy. The goal is to determine if high resolution digital imaging is equivalent to state-of-the-art film-screen imaging. Initial results of the trial will be presented.