Evaluation of silver sulfide nanoparticles as a contrast agent for spectral photon-counting digital mammography: a phantom study

Kristen C. Lau; Jessica C. Hsu; Björn Cederström; David P. Cormode; Andrew D. A. Maidment

doi:10.1117/12.2511757

1 March 2019 Evaluation of silver sulfide nanoparticles as a contrast agent for spectral photon-counting digital mammography: a phantom study

Kristen C. Lau, Jessica C. Hsu, Björn Cederström, David P. Cormode, Andrew D. A. Maidment

Author Affiliations +

Proceedings Volume 10948, Medical Imaging 2019: Physics of Medical Imaging; 109481J (2019) https://doi.org/10.1117/12.2511757
Event: SPIE Medical Imaging, 2019, San Diego, California, United States

Abstract

The objective of our study was to evaluate the feasibility of using silver sulfide nanoparticles (Ag₂S-NP) as a contrast agent for photon-counting mammography. The efficacies of Ag₂S-NP and iodine contrast were evaluated using a contrastembedded gradient phantom. The phantom was constructed using tissue-equivalent materials and varied continuously in composition from 100% glandular tissue to 100% adipose tissue. Each contrast agent was prepared at eight different concentrations: 1, 2, 5, 10, 15, 20, 25, and 30 mg/mL. Tubes of contrast agent were inserted into holes bored through the phantom in the direction of varying glandularity. Various images of the phantom were acquired by altering the acquisition parameters (kV, mAs, and high bin fraction). A range of beam energies from 26 kV to 40 kV was tested in this study. Our results demonstrate that for a given contrast agent, the contrast-to-noise ratio (CNR) is linearly proportional to concentration, and its magnitude is dependent on the kV of the spectrum. At mammographic energies, the Ag₂S-NP contrast increases with increasing kV and increasing solution concentration. Comparatively, the iodine signal becomes detectable only when the kV of the image is above iodine’s K-edge (33.2 keV). This indicates that the optimal energy for imaging iodine may exceed the clinical mammographic energy range. In summary, we have demonstrated the feasibility of using Ag₂S-NP as a contrast agent for breast imaging. Preliminary results from spectral photon-counting mammography indicate that Ag₂S-NP contrast has a significantly higher signal than iodine, especially when imaging at lower energies.

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Kristen C. Lau, Jessica C. Hsu, Björn Cederström, David P. Cormode, and Andrew D. A. Maidment "Evaluation of silver sulfide nanoparticles as a contrast agent for spectral photon-counting digital mammography: a phantom study", Proc. SPIE 10948, Medical Imaging 2019: Physics of Medical Imaging, 109481J (1 March 2019); https://doi.org/10.1117/12.2511757

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