X-ray mammography is currently the modality of choice for breast cancer screening. However, X-ray mammography cannot provide a positive diagnosis for cancer. A novel, dedicated breast imaging modality has been developed based on the principles of Positron Emission Tomography (PET). The Positron Emission Mammography (PEM) system is a sensitive, high resolution ($ sp sim2$ mm) breast scanner. PEM detects increased cell metabolism (indicating the presence of cancer) by imaging the distribution of tumour-specific metabolic radiotracers. The accurate co-registration of metabolic and X-ray breast images is important for localizing and characterizing suspicious lesions. Traditionally, registration between different imaging modalities has been difficult. PEM simplifies the image registration process by acquiring an X-ray image and a metabolic image consecutively, without moving the breast between scans. The PEM detectors are integrated into a conventional mammography unit and a co-registration tool has been developed. By providing metabolic information about a suspicious breast lesion, the number of invasive biopsy procedures (currently used to diagnose breast cancer) can be reduced.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:LACETR/oai:collectionscanada.gc.ca:QMM.27495 |
| Date | January 1997 |
| Creators | Bergman, Alanah M. |
| Contributors | Thompson, C. J. (advisor) |
| Publisher | McGill University |
| Source Sets | Library and Archives Canada ETDs Repository / Centre d'archives des thèses électroniques de Bibliothèque et Archives Canada |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Electronic Thesis or Dissertation |
| Format | application/pdf |
| Coverage | Master of Science (Department of Medical Radiation Physics.) |
| Rights | All items in eScholarship@McGill are protected by copyright with all rights reserved unless otherwise indicated. |
| Relation | alephsysno: 001601785, proquestno: MQ37093, Theses scanned by UMI/ProQuest. |
Page generated in 0.001 seconds