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US 9,401,019 B2Granted
Imaging tomosynthesis system, in particular mammography system
AssigneeSiemens Aktiengesellschaft
InventorsFrank Dennerlein, Andreas Fieselmann
Life of this patent
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Abstract
An imaging tomosynthesis system, in particular a mammography system, includes a computer system which generates x-ray projections of an examination object from a plurality of projection angles. The system further reconstructs a stack of tomosynthetic slice images, generates at least one overview image of density values of an examination object from the tomosynthetic image data, selects characteristic density values in the stack at at least one plane position, and determines the geometric level of the at least one selected characteristic density value. The overview image is then displayed with a color value correlated to the geometric level of the at least one characteristic density value.
Claims30
An imaging tomosynthesis system, comprising:
- an emitter/detector system for scanning an examination object from a plurality of projection angles and configured for generating tomosynthetic image data of the examination object;
- a computer system including at least one display unit and a storage medium for storing program code configured, during operation, to execute the following method:
- generating x-ray projections of the examination object by way of the emitter/detector system from a plurality of projection angles, which are suitable for generating tomosynthetic image data from density values of the examination object;
- reconstructing a stack of tomosynthetic slice image data, which respectively extend in a plane through the examination object and which correspond to slices at different levels perpendicular to the respective plane, from the x-ray projections;
- generating an overview image of density values of the examination object from the tomosynthetic representations;
- selecting respectively one characteristic density value in the stack at at least one plane position of the tomosynthetic slice images;
- determining a level of the at least one selected characteristic density value;
- wherein the density values and the level are represented in a pixel by coding in values of a color space used for the pixel representation;
- and
- displaying the overview image of the density values on the at least one display device and simultaneously displaying the level of the at least one characteristic density value as a color value correlated to the level.
7 more elements
An imaging tomosynthesis system, comprising:
- an emitter/detector system for scanning an examination object from a plurality of projection angles and configured for generating tomosynthetic image data of the examination object;
- a computer system including at least one display unit and a storage medium for storing program code configured, during operation, to execute the following method:
- generating x-ray projections of the examination object by way of the emitter/detector system from a plurality of projection angles, which are suitable for generating tomosynthetic image data from density values of the examination object;
- reconstructing a stack of tomosynthetic slice image data, which respectively extend in a plane through the examination object and which correspond to slices at different levels perpendicular to the respective plane, from the x-ray projections;
- generating an overview image of density values of the examination object from the tomosynthetic representations;
- selecting respectively one characteristic density value in the stack at at least one plane position of the tomosynthetic slice images;
- determining a level of the at least one selected characteristic density value;
- and
- displaying the overview image of the density values on the at least one display device and simultaneously displaying the level of the at least one characteristic density value as a color value correlated to the level, and thereby displaying only the plane positions with maximum density values above a prescribed threshold with the additional level information.
6 more elements
An imaging tomosynthesis system, comprising:
- an emitter/detector system for scanning an examination object from a plurality of projection angles and configured for generating tomosynthetic image data of the examination object;
- a computer system including at least one display unit and a storage medium for storing program code configured, during operation, to execute the following method:
- generating x-ray projections of the examination object by way of the emitter/detector system from a plurality of projection angles, which are suitable for generating tomosynthetic image data from density values of the examination object;
- reconstructing a stack of tomosynthetic slice image data, which respectively extend in a plane through the examination object and which correspond to slices at different levels perpendicular to the respective plane, from the x-ray projections;
- generating an overview image of density values of the examination object from the tomosynthetic representations;
- selecting respectively one characteristic density value in the stack at at least one plane position of the tomosynthetic slice images;
- determining a level of the at least one selected characteristic density value;
- and
- displaying the overview image of the density values on the at least one display device and simultaneously displaying the level of the at least one characteristic density value as a color value correlated to the level;
- and
- a user interface for selecting at least two plane positions in the overview display, wherein, by selecting two plane positions with characteristic density values, the three-dimensional distance between the spatial positions of the characteristic density values is determined and displayed.
8 more elements
An imaging tomosynthesis system, comprising:
- an emitter/detector system for scanning an examination object from a plurality of projection angles and configured for generating tomosynthetic image data of the examination object;
- a computer system including at least one display unit and a storage medium for storing program code configured, during operation, to execute the following method:
- generating x-ray projections of the examination object by way of the emitter/detector system from a plurality of projection angles, which are suitable for generating tomosynthetic image data from density values of the examination object;
- reconstructing a stack of tomosynthetic slice image data, which respectively extend in a plane through the examination object and which correspond to slices at different levels perpendicular to the respective plane, from the x-ray projections;
- generating an overview image of density values of the examination object from the tomosynthetic representations;
- selecting respectively one characteristic density value in the stack at at least one plane position of the tomosynthetic slice images;
- determining a level of the at least one selected characteristic density value;
- and
- displaying the overview image of the density values on the at least one display device and simultaneously displaying the level of the at least one characteristic density value as a color value correlated to the level;
- and
- a user interface for selecting at least two plane positions in the overview display, wherein:
- an operator is enabled to select a region of displayed density values on the overview display;
- said computer system is configured to identify density values that are present in the selected region;
- and
- to ascertain boundary surfaces in three dimensions that include the positions of the identified density values.
12 more elements
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.