This article is designed to review and comment on the publication entitled “Design and development of a phantom for tomosynthesis with potential for automated analysis via the cloud”. The original article describes the development of a phantom designed to be responsive to the ideas and suggestions of a number of potential regulatory and standards groups interested in measuring physical parameters of Digital Breast Tomography (DBT) systems. This review is intended to summarize some of the design aspects and initial results and comments from the users, of the phantom and analysis software.

In particular, the phantom design cited in the article is the Tomophan^®(The Phantom Laboratory, Salem, NY), and the cloud- based analysis system (Smári Image Analysis Service) offered through The Phantom Laboratory. The phantom and analysis software allow the user to measure: Signal to Noise Ratio (SNR); and Contrast to Noise Ratio (CNR); Noise Power Spectrum (NPS); Spatial linearity (pixel size); Regional in plane uniformity and Global Uniformity; High Resolution MTF in both x and directions; Lost Chest Wall Tissue; and Low Contrast Spherical Targets

One of the key aspects of the Tomophan^®is the inclusion of angled ramps of small beads that move through the z-axis of the phantom. These beads allow determination of the Tomo slice thickness and the slice sensitivity profile SSP (z). In addition, each bead presents essentially a “point source” from which the Point Spread Function (PSF) may be determined and the resulting data can also be (Fourier) transformed to calculate the Modulation Transfer Function (MTF)

With Regards,
Sara Giselle
Associate Managing Editor
Journal of Medical Physics and Applied Scinces