1997 Volume 6 Issue 2 Pages 191-199
In incorporating mammography (MMG) into breast cancer screening, an essential issue is to establish a MMG QA/QC system by standardizing image quality and exposure dose, which are fundamental to MMG screening systems. At present, each subsystem related to QA/QC is gradually progressing toward completion through the efforts of those involved. Henceforth, it will be imperative to see how these subsystems can be organized and how to actually operate them. Particularly, it will be crucial to establish systems for mobilizing the personnel involved in QA/QC.
In this paper, we report on the following matters from a medical physicist's standpoint with the aim of ascertaining the relationship between MMG image quality and exposure dose : 1) development of a new technique for measuring MMG X-ray exposure dose ; 2) feasibility of a MMG exposure dose standard traceable system that makes use of this new measurement technique ; 3) creation of a database system for QA/QC phantom images in order to control MMG image quality ; 4) the current state of QA/QC in countries that are well advanced in MMG ; and 5) problems related to the operations of a QA/QC system.
