X-ray breast tomosynthesis enhancing spatial resolution including in the thickness direction of a flattened breast

An x-ray breast imaging system comprising:

• a breast immobilizer configured to flatten a patient's breast;
• an x-ray source and an x-ray imaging receptor configured to image the breast in an enhanced tomosynthesis mode ET in which the receptor obtains a first set of two-dimensional (2D) projection tomosynthesis x-ray images ETp1 for a first trajectory of the source around the immobilizer and a second set of images ETp2 for a longer second trajectory of the source around the immobilizer;
• a computer-implemented image processor configured to apply tomosynthesis image reconstruction processing to the images ETp1 and ETp2 to obtain reconstructed images ETr, wherein one of the sets of (i) ETp1 images and (ii) ETp2 images contributes more high spatial frequency content than the other set to the reconstructed images ETr, and the images Etr represent respective breast slices having selected thicknesses and orientations;
• and
• a display configured to display images related to said 3D reconstructed images ETr.

An x-ray breast imaging system having multiple modes of operation comprising:

• a breast immobilizer configured to flatten a patient's breast in an imaging volume;
• an x-ray source and an x-ray imaging receptor configured to selectively operate in any one or more of the following system modes while the breast remains in the immobilizer:
• (a) a mammography mode M, (b) a tomosynthesis mode T, and (c) an enhanced tomosynthesis mode ET;
• wherein (a) when in mode M the system produces a mammogram image Mp taken while the source and receptor are at fixed positions relative to the immobilizer, (b) when in mode T the system produces plural two-dimensional (2D) projection images Tp each taken from a respective position of the source in a source trajectory T around the immobilizer, and (c) when operating in mode ET the system produces 2D projection images ETp1 taken from respective positions of the source in a first source trajectory ET1 around the breast immobilizer and 2D projection images ETp2 taken from respective positions of the source in a second source trajectory ET2 around the immobilizer that is longer than the first source trajectory;
• a computer-implemented image processor configured to:
• (a) respond to mode M operation to process the image Mp into a display mammogram image Mpd, (b) respond to mode T operation to apply a first tomosynthesis image reconstruction processing to the images Tp and thereby produce reconstructed breast slice images Tr, and (c) respond to mode ET operation to apply a second tomosynthesis image reconstruction processing to the images ETp1 and ETp2 to produce reconstructed breast slice images ETr;
• wherein the spatial resolution at least in a breast compression direction is greater in one of images Tr and ETr than in the other of images Tr and ETr;
• and
• a display configured to selectively display images derived from one or more of images Mp, Tr, and ETr.

An x-ray breast imaging system comprising:

• a breast immobilizer configured to flatten a patient's breast;
• and
• an x-ray source and an x-ray imaging receptor configured to image the breast in a tomosynthesis mode T in which the receptor obtains a set of two-dimensional (2D) projection tomosynthesis x-ray images Tp of a patient's breast in the immobilizer and a set of computerized tomography (CT) projection images CTp of the patient's breast in the immobilizer;
• wherein said x-ray source and said x-ray receptor are configured to acquire both said set of tomosynthesis images Tp and said set of CT images CTp while the patient's breast remains flattened in the immobilizer.