Synchronized viewing of tomosynthesis and/or mammograms

A method of generating diagnostic medical views of at least one stack of tomosynthesis image data, comprising:

• electronically displaying a reference view of a patient's breast using a reference tomosynthesis image data set;
• electronically selecting a corresponding view of the patient's breast using one or more slices from a primary tomosynthesis stack of image data
• displaying the selected view adjacent to the reference view;
• visually indicating on the display whether a synchronized viewing mode relating the reference and tomosynthesis image data sets is active, and, in the synchronized viewing mode, the selecting step comprises electronically automatically selecting a slice or slices of the primary tomosynthesis stack that match a range in a Z dimension of the reference view of the reference image data set whereby the system automatically synchronizes the view of the primary tomosynthesis stack to the reference view with the anatomical extent in each view being substantially the same with synchronization between stacks connected to data set geometric position rather than slice number.

A medical image system, comprising:

• a signal processor circuit for rendering images from respective patient multidimensional imaging data sets;
• and
• at least one client workstation having at least one display with a graphic user interface in communication with or including the circuit, wherein the-graphic user interface is configured to accept user input to interact with an image data set to generate desired views of the image data, and wherein the circuit is configured to define and display a view of breast tissue using a primary tomosynthesis stack of patient image data based on at least one of the following:
• (a) anatomical and/or geometric position properties of a reference image data set of the patient;
• (b) properties of a current view of a reference image data set of the patient;
• or (c) anatomical and/or geometric position properties of a reference image data set and properties of a current view of the reference image data set,
• wherein the reference image data set and the primary tomosynthesis stack of patient image data are obtained at different times and the breast tissue associated with the reference image data set and the primary data stack can have different tissue densities and symmetry, and
• wherein the reference image is a 2D mammogram, and wherein the circuit is configured to electronically automatically select at least one tomosynthesis slice from the primary tomosynthesis stack by electronically identifying image features in one or more slices that correspond to those shown in the 2D reference mammogram image and displaying a view of the primary stack based on the selected slice(s).

A computer program product for providing physician interactive access to patient medical data for rendering diagnostic medical images, the computer program product comprising:

• a non-transitory computer readable storage medium having computer readable program code embodied in the medium, the computer-readable program code comprising:
• computer readable program code configured to display in a single viewing application, a reference image view from a reference tomosynthesis image data set having a plurality of slices and a corresponding primary view based on a primary tomosynthesis stack of image data having a plurality of slices;
• and
• computer readable program code configured to electronically select a slice or slices of the primary tomosynthesis stack to match a range in a Z dimension of a reference view of the reference image data set and automatically synchronize the view of the primary tomosynthesis stack to the reference view with the anatomical extent in each view being substantially the same, and wherein the number of slices and/or slice position can be different for the reference and primary views.