A method for estimating compressed breast thickness during mammography.

Measurements of compressed breast thickness during mammography is necessary for the calculation of breast dose. In theory, it should be possible to calculate breast thickness from the separation of images of radio-opaque markers attached to the compression paddle. Such a technique has been evaluated on two models of X-ray set using simulated and real breasts. The results show that breast thickness at a given position can be determined with an average error of about 2 mm by this method, which is likely to be adequate for dosimetry.