System and method for navigating a tomosynthesis stack using synthesized image data

A method for processing, displaying and navigating breast tissue images, comprising:

• obtaining a plurality of tomosynthesis images comprising volumetric image data of a patient's breast;
• generating a synthesized 2D image of the patient's breast by importing one or more objects and/or regions from the tomosynthesis images into a merged image, wherein respective tomosynthesis images of the plurality contain one or more regions defined by X,Y coordinate locations that are common for multiple tomosynthesis images of the plurality;
• displaying the synthesized 2D image;
• receiving a user command, or otherwise detecting through a user interface, a user selection or other indication of an object or region in the synthesized 2D image;
• and
• displaying at least a portion of one or more tomosynthesis images from the plurality, including a source image of the user selected or indicated object or region, wherein
• (i) an image from which a respective object and/or region is imported into the merged image comprises a source image for that object or region,
• (ii) the imported objects and/or regions are incorporated into the merged image at X,Y coordinate locations corresponding to X,Y coordinate locations of the respective objects and/or regions in their source image, and
• (iii) one of each said one or more common regions is imported from the plurality of tomosynthesis images into the merged image based upon a comparison of one or more attributes of the common region in each tomosynthesis image that contains the respective common image.

A method for processing, displaying and navigating breast tissue images, comprising:

• obtaining a plurality of 2D and/or 3D images of a patient's breast, wherein respective images of the obtained plurality of images contain one or more regions defined by X,Y coordinate locations that are common for multiple images of the plurality;
• generating a synthesized 2D image of the patient's breast by importing respective regions from the obtained plurality of images into a merged image, wherein an image from which a respective region is imported into the merged image comprises a source image for that region, the imported regions are incorporated into the merged image at X,Y coordinate locations corresponding to X,Y coordinate locations of the respective regions in their source image, and wherein one of each said one or more common regions is imported from the plurality of images into the merged image based upon a comparison of one or more attributes of the common region in each image that contains the respective common image;
• displaying the synthesized 2D image;
• detecting through a user interface a location of a user movable input device in the displayed synthesized 2D image;
• and
• concurrently displaying a respective source image of a tissue structure or region that corresponds to a given location of a user movable input device in the displayed synthesized 2D image.