Image handling and display in X-ray mammography and tomosynthesis

摘要

A method and system for acquiring, processing, storing, and displaying x-ray mammograms Mp tomosynthesis images Tr representative of breast slices, and x-ray tomosynthesis projection images Tp taken at different angles to a breast, where the Tr images are reconstructed from Tp images.

主权项

1. A tomosynthesis system comprising:
an x-ray source selectively emitting an imaging x-ray beam, a breast immobilizing structure defining a volume for a patient's breast, and an x-ray imaging receptor arranged such that said x-ray beam passes first through the volume for the patient's breast before impinging on the imaging receptor; a source support mounting the x-ray source for selective movement relative to the breast immobilizing structure; an x-ray data acquisition control configured to:
cause the x-ray source to move through a plurality of different imaging positions relative to the breast immobilizing structure and selectively illuminate the imaging receptor with the x-ray beam for each of the imaging positions, andcause the imaging receptor to provide imaging data in response to being illuminated with the x-ray beam for the different imaging positions; a processing and image reconstruction unit configured to receive and process the imaging data and generate a plurality of projection x-ray images Tp and a plurality of reconstructed slices images Tr, wherein:
each image Tp is a projection x-ray image of the volume for the patient's breast taken with the x-ray beam for a respective one of the plurality of different positions of the x-ray source relative to the breast immobilizing structure; andeach image Tr is an image of a respective 3-dimensional slice of the volume for the patient's breast reconstructed through computer processing using at least several of the projection images Tp; and an image display unit configured to selectively display selected ones of the slice images Tr and projection images Tp concurrently with indicia identifying each displayed image as a projection or a slice image.