Digital Breast Tomosynthesis

The Digital Breast Tomosynthesis (DBT) Profile specifies how Mammography, Digital Breast Tomosnthesis images and evidence objects are created, exchanged, used and displayed.

Summary

The IHE Digital Breast Tomosynthesis Profile ensures that the acquired digital mammography and tomosynthesis images contain all relevant information that is necessary for further image processing, storage, display, review and printing. This profile is absolutely necessary for generating correct digital mammography and tomosynthesis image content to ensure optimal presentation of images at a mammography review workstation.

Benefits

Support for the DBT profile will provide the following benefits to your healthcare enterprise:

• Reduce Errors and Enhance Patient Care
  • Ensuring proper, consistent creation of patient and technical information
  • Ensures that the acquired images contain the necessary data for identifying patient and technology, and that further image processing and review is correct and meaningful, mainly by:
    • Scaling of the image so that images from the same patient, acquired on different detectors can be displayed at the same size or printed in true size
    • Providing information to proper orientation and hanging of images
    • Storing contrast information at the modality so that contrast adjustments do not degrade the quality of displayed images
    • Clear definition of breast tissue and background air so that if contrast adjustments are made during interpretation of the images, the background blackness will be maintained for optimal viewing of the structure of the breast.
• Improve Image Quality
  • Improves image display and printing by including relevant data in images
  • Ensures that all technique acquisition parameters are available for review
  • Ensures that the images can be oriented, justified and sized correctly for proper and expeditious interpretation
  • Ensures that presentation images can be used in a consistent manner on different mammography review workstations
• Increase Throughput
  • Reduces time to read the images. Images will be displayed on the screen oriented so that the important area is automatically displayed and with the correct orientation and sizing.
• Reduce costs by largely eliminating film printing, management and storage costs.

Details

The Digital Breast Tomosynthesis Profile specifies how DICOM Mammography and Tomosynthesis images and evidence objects are created, exchanged and used. It describes how Acquisition Modalities transfer these images, and how Image Displays should retrieve and make use of images. It defines the basic display capabilities Image Displays are expected to provide, and which attributes should be used to implement those capabilities.

Managing the process of creating, storing and using Digital Tomosynthesis image content is similar to workflow for other image content (e.g., see Scheduled Workflow and Mammography Acquisition Workflow).

The Digital Breast Tomosynthesis Profile is designed to provide faithful and complete storage and retrieval of Mammography data and sufficient display functionality to allow adequate review of current and prior images and CAD results for the purpose of primary interpretation by radiologists. It should also be sufficient for secondary review for referring physicians. It does not address the use of other modalities appropriate for breast imaging such as MR or US.

Systems Affected

• Modalities that create, store, and transmit Mammography images.
• PACS systems that store, manage, and/or display Mammography images.
• Display systems that query, retrieve and display Mammography images.
• Workstations that retrieve, process and display Mammography images, and may create evidence documents.
• Printers that print Mammography images in true size

Actors & Transactions:

Specification

Profile Status: Final Text

Documents:

• IHE Radiology Technical Framework

Underlying Standards:

• DICOM

See Also

Related Profiles

• Scheduled Workflow [SWF] can manage the production of Digital Mammography Images.

• Mammography Acquisition Workflow [MAWF] is handling exceptions occurring during the acquisition workflow like changing the acquisition room, handling of recall scenarios or converting procedures

• Patient Information Reconciliation [PIR] is expected to reconcile Mammography Images along with the rest of the patient data record.

• Reporting Workflow [RWF] may use Mammography Images as inputs to the reporting process.

• Cross-enterprise Document Sharing for Imaging [XDS-I] can be used to share Mammography Images between sites over a network.

• Portable Data for Imaging [PDI] can store Mammography Images on media such as CDs.

• Import Reconciliation Workflow [IRWF] can fix patient ids, etc. of Mammography Images when importing.

Consumer Information

The IHE Radiology Mammography Users Handbook describes considerations when purchasing equipment to deploy this Profile.

Implementer Information

Reference Articles

This page is based on the Profile Overview Template