ABSTRACT
This chapter addresses methods of breast dosimetry and their application in national and international protocols. Digital breast tomosynthesis (DBT) involves imaging the breast over a limited range of the incident angle of the X-ray beam, and then processing the resulting projection images to obtain tomographic image slices at a series of vertical heights through the breast. There are two protocols available for DBT: that of the American Association of Physicists in Medicine and follow-on to the European quality assurance guidelines for mammography. The chapter presents some typical values of mean glandular dose (MGD) for both mammography and DBT and give example comparisons of the results of assessment using phantom- and patient-based measurements, both using the same equipment. The MGD can be assessed from both phantom- and patient-based measurements, and there is a large and increasing literature giving the results of local and national surveys.
