MAMMOGRAPHY APPARATUS

摘要

In a mammography apparatus, a deflection of an x-ray source aligned on a radiation detector is predetermined depending on the size of a breast compressed in the compression unit and/or the density of the breast tissue. Given an increasing deflection on an arc-shaped trajectory of the x-ray source, the compression of the breast is reduced at least once so that the path of the x-rays through the breast stays within a predetermined path length, starting from a first compression in a first x-ray acquisition.

主权项

1. A mammography apparatus comprising:
an x-ray source that emits an x-ray beam that comprises a central ray; a compression unit that compresses a breast therein with an adjustable compression pressure; a radiation detector; said x-ray source being mounted for movement along an arc-shaped trajectory so as to irradiate the breast in the compression unit with said x-ray beam from each of a plurality of different projection angles along said arc-shaped trajectory, and said radiation detector detecting x-rays that have proceeded through the breast in the compression unit at each of said projection angles, with said central ray proceeding through a different radioscopy path in the breast at the respective projection angles; and a control and evaluation unit configured to adjust the compression pressure applied to the breast by said compression unit to cause said radioscopy path of said central ray through the compressed breast to stay within a predetermined deviation, relative to a length of said radioscopy path at a first of said projection angles, as said x-ray source proceeds through said different projection angles along said arc-shaped trajectory.