Table 1.

Parameters recommended by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) to judge the quality of full-field digital mammography (FFDM) images [26].

Parameter	Definition
Breast positioning	Assess coverage of the breast on cranio-caudal (CC) and medio-lateral oblique (MLO) views
Exposure	Assess visualization of the adipose and fibroglandular tissues and visualization of breast tissue underlying the pectoralis muscle
Breast compression	Assess overlapping breast structures, uniformity of exposure of fibroglandular tissues, adequacy of penetration of thicker portions, exposure of thinner areas, and motion unsharpness
Image contrast	Assess differentiation of subtle tissue density differences
Sharpness	Assess the edges of fine linear structures, tissue borders, and benign calcifications
Tissue visibility	Assess the tissue visibility on the skin line
Noise	Assess noise obscuring breast structures or suggestive of structures not actually present
Artifacts	Assess artifacts due to image processing, detector failure, and other factors external to the breast
Image quality	Assess the overall clinical image quality