Comparison of computer analysis of mammography phantom images (CAMPI) with perceived image quality of phantom targets in the ACR phantom

Computer Analysis of Mammography Phantom Images (CAMPI) is a method for making quantitative measurements of image quality on phantom images. The purpose of this work was to determine the correlation of the CAMPI measures with the perceived image quality of the microcalcification target objects in a phantom. A large existing phantom image database was subjected to CAMPI analysis. Extracted microcalcification regions from some of these images were compared in pairs by three observers. A global maximization technique was used to determine which linear combinations of the CAMPI measures most closely predicted the paired comparison observations. An analysis was also conducted to determine the validity of the linear model. It was found that the signal-to-noise-ratio measure (SNR) and the correlation measure (COR) most strongly correlated with the observed paired comparison results. A linear combination of the measures gave a slightly, but significantly, better correlation with the observations.