Segmentation of diagnostic radiography images using deep learning is progressively expanding, which sets demands on the accessibility, availability, and accuracy of the software tools used. This study aimed at evaluating the performance of a segmentation model for digital breast tomosynthesis (DBT), with the use of computer-simulated breast anatomy. We have simulated breast anatomy and soft tissue breast lesions, by utilizing a model approach based on the Perlin noise algorithm. The obtained breast phantoms were projected and reconstructed into DBT slices using a publicly available open-source reconstruction method. Each lesion was then segmented using two approaches: 1. the Segment Anything Model (SAM), a publicly available AI-based method for image segmentation and 2. manually by three human observers. The lesion area in each slice was compared to the ground truth area, derived from the binary mask of the lesion model. We found similar performance between SAM and manual segmentation. Both SAM and the observers performed comparably in the central slice (mean absolute relative error compared to the ground truth and standard deviation SAM: 4±3%, observers: 3±3%). Similarly, both SAM and the observers overestimated the lesion area in the peripheral reconstructed slices (mean absolute relative error and standard deviation SAM: 277±190%, observers: 295±182%). We showed that 3D voxel phantoms can be used for evaluating different segmentation methods. In preliminary comparison, tumor segmentation in simulated DBT images using SAM open-source method showed a similar performance as manual tumor segmentation.
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