Mammography tomosynthesis apparatus with a compression plate having a recess therein
AssigneesSiemens Aktiengesellschaft, The Research Foundation of State University of New York
InventorsThomas Mertelmeier, Wei Zhao
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Abstract
A tomosynthesis apparatus for mammography has an x-ray source for emission of x-ray beams from different directions directed toward a detector, and a compression plate and a support plate arranged in the beam path between the x-ray source and the detector. A breast to be examined is positioned and compressed between the compression plate and the support plate. The compression plate exhibits a concave recess open in the direction of the support plate on the side of the compression plate facing toward the support plate.
Claims15
A tomosynthesis mammography apparatus comprising;
- an x-ray source that emits an x-ray beam;
- a radiation detector on which said x-ray beam is incident;
- a compression plate and a support plate located between said x-ray source and said radiation detector in a beam path of said x-ray beam, said compression plate and said support plate being configured to retain and compress a breast therebetween;
- said x-ray source being configured to emit said x-ray beam to irradiate the breast between the compression plate and the support plate from a plurality of different directions, and said radiation detector being configured to detect x-rays in said x-ray beam, attenuated by the breast between said compression plate and support plate, from each of said different directions to generate a plurality of projection images of the breast;
- said compression plate having a side facing said support plate, which is in contact with said breast, and having a concave recess in said side that accommodates the breast therein;
- and
- a processor supplied with said projection images configured to execute a reconstruction algorithm to generate a 3D tomosynthesis image of the breast from said projection images.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.