Abstract
Mammographic density, defined as the percentage area of the breast in a mammogram that is comprised of fibroglandular tissue, is associated with risk of developing breast cancer. However, measures of mammographic density are subject to variation in the imaging process and in the assessments of observ-ers. Automatic volumetric measures of breast density remove much of this vari-ability, but their association with risk remains to be validated. We present den-sity measurements produced by area-based visual assessment via a visual ana-logue scale (VAS) and by volumetric assessment software (QuantraTM, Holog-ic Inc.) for digital mammograms of participants in a large-scale clinical study.VAS results were produced independently by two expert observers and av-eraged to give a final score. The distributions of average VAS scores (n = 22 327) and QuantraTM densities (n = 11 653) are shown by histograms and box plots. The average area-based density was 24.5% (SD 15.7%) and the average volumetric density was 17.0% (SD 6.0%). Inter-observer variability in visual area-based estimation is examined by a scatter plot matrix. It is inappropriate to directly compare area-based and volumetric measures of percentage breast density, since they are measuring different properties of the breast. Automatic volumetric assessment avoids the inter-observer variability shown in visual assessment, but work remains in establishing the association between volumetric measures and breast cancer risk.
Original language | English |
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Title of host publication | Breast Imaging: Lecture Notes in Computer Science 7361 |
Editors | A Maidment, P Bakic, S Gavenonis |
Place of Publication | Berlin-Heidelberg |
Publisher | Springer Nature |
Pages | 228-235 |
Number of pages | 8 |
Publication status | Published - Jul 2012 |
Event | International Workshop on Breast Imaging - University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia Duration: 8 Jul 2012 → 11 Jul 2012 |
Conference
Conference | International Workshop on Breast Imaging |
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City | University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia |
Period | 8/07/12 → 11/07/12 |
Keywords
- Breast density
- area
- volume
- inter-observer
- Quantra