M. Kuchler et M. Friedrich, ADVANCES IN THE TECHNIQUE OF MAMMOGRAPHY - BIMETAL ANODE MATERIAL ANDSELECTIVE FILTERING TECHNIQUE, RoFo. Fortschritte auf dem Gebiete der Rontgenstrahlen und der neuenbildgebenden Verfahren, 159(1), 1993, pp. 91-96
The use of molybdenum (Mo) as material for anodes and filters in mammo
graphy has been a result of contrast optimisation for breasts of low t
o medium radiation absorption. To penetrate denser breasts the kV must
be increased, thus increasing the fraction of the harder radiation co
mponent and deteriorating image contrast. Besides this an increased ra
diation exposure to the patient must be accepted. In these cases the f
lexible use of rhodium (Rh) as anode and filter material is promising.
A newly developed mammographic equipment (Senographe DMR, General Ele
ctric-CGR) offers these features. With selective rhodium filtering and
anode material our measurements confirm a reduced radiation exposure
(less than 50 %) in dense breasts with significantly improved image co
ntrast compared with the conventional molybdenum technique.