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US 8,787,522 B2Granted
Upright x-ray breast imaging with a CT mode, multiple tomosynthesis modes, and a mammography mode
AssigneeHologic, Inc.
InventorsAndrew P. Smith, Jay A. Stein, Ken Defreitas, Ian Shaw, Zhenxue Jing, Loren Niklason, Baorui Ren, Christopher Ruth
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Abstract
A multi-mode system and method for imaging a patient's breast with x-rays in one or more of a CT mode, a narrow-angle tomosynthesis mode, a wide angle tomosynthesis mode, and a mammography mode, using essentially the same equipment, on one or more compressions or immobilizations of the breast.
Claims26
An x-ray system for imaging a breast of an upright patient comprising:
- a breast immobilization unit configured to immobilize a breast of an upright patient between two facing compression surfaces configured to compress the patient's breast to different degrees at different angles relative to the breast;
- an x-ray source on one side of the breast immobilization unit and an x-ray imaging receptor on another side of the immobilization unit, said source selectively emitting an imaging beam of x-rays and said receptor receiving said imaging beam after passage thereof through the immobilization unit, and said source and receptor being mounted for selective movement about the breast immobilization unit;
- an x-ray data acquisition unit coupled with said source and receptor and configured to selectively operate said system in a CT mode in which at least the source moves about the breast immobilization unit, and thus a breast of an upright patient immobilized therein, over a CT source trajectory angle greater than 180° and the receptor generates image data for a plurality of projection images CTp of the breast taken at different angles within said CT angle;
- an image processing unit configured to receive and computer-process at least some of said image data for said images CTp to thereby generate reconstructed images CTr representing slices of the breast having selected thicknesses and orientations, and to produce display slice images CTrd based thereon;
- and
- a display unit receiving said selectively displaying said display images CTrd for viewing.
3 more elements
A method of imaging a breast of an upright patient with x-rays comprising:
- immobilizing and flattening a breast of the upright patient between an upper surface and a lower surface;
- providing an x-ray source on one side of said surfaces and an x-ray imaging receptor on another side of the surfaces;
- selectively imaging the patient's immobilized and flattened breast with x-rays from the x-ray source received at the x-ray receptor after passage through the breast in:
- (a) a computerized tomography (CT) mode generating a plurality of two-dimensional projection x-ray images CTp of the breast taken by moving at least said x-ray source around the immobilized breast over a CT angle greater than 180° and generating each of said CTp images for a respective increment of said CT angle;
- (b) a tomosynthesis mode T generating a plurality of two-dimensional tomosynthesis projection x-ray images Tp of the immobilized breast taken by moving at least said source through a tomosynthesis angle that is substantially less than said CT angle and generating each of said images Tp for a respective increment of said tomosynthesis angle;
- (c) a mammography mode M generating one or more two-dimensional projection images Mp of the compressed breast, each using a patient dose approximating that for a conventional mammogram;
- selectively reconstructing slice images CTr from said images CTp and slice tomosynthesis images Tr from said images Tp, in each case for respective three-dimensional slices of the imaged breast, said slices having respective selected thicknesses and orientations;
- selectively computer-processing said images CTr, Tp, Tr and Mp to generate respective display images CTrd, Tpd, Trd and Md;
- and
- displaying selected combinations of one or more of said CTrd, Tpd, Trd, and Md images for concurrent viewing.
7 more elements
A method of imaging a breast of an upright patient with x-rays comprising:
- immobilizing and flattening a breast of the upright patient between an upper compression surface and a lower compression surface;
- providing an x-ray source on one side of said compression surfaces and an x-ray imaging receptor on another side of the compression surfaces;
- selectively imaging the patient's flattened and immobilized breast with x-rays from the x-ray source received at the x-ray receptor after passage through the breast in:
- (a) a computerized tomography (CT) mode generating a plurality of two-dimensional projection x-ray images CTp of the breast taken by moving at least said x-ray source around the immobilized breast over a CT angle greater than 180° and generating each of said CTp images for a selected respective increment of said CT angle;
- and
- (b) a tomosynthesis mode T generating a plurality of two-dimensional tomosynthesis projection x-ray images Tp of the immobilized breast taken by moving at least said source over a tomosynthesis angle that is substantially less than 180° and generating each of said images Tp for a selected respective increment of said tomosynthesis angle;
- selectively computer-processing said images CTp and Tp to reconstruct one or more three-dimensional (3D) images of the breast;
- and
- forming and displaying display images related to said one or more 3D images of the breast.
6 more elements
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.