Iterative Reconstruction for Breast Tomosynthesis

描述（由申请人提供）：在常规乳房x光检查中检测病变是一项艰巨的任务，主要是由于叠加实质的掩盖效应！乳房的模式。有限角度，乳房断层摄影，也被称为乳房断层合成，是一种被提出用来减少这种掩蔽效应的技术，通过向放射科医生提供乳房的断层图像切片。本研究的目的是探讨乳房断层合成中迭代重建方法的应用。与先前提出的断层合成方法相比，迭代重建方法具有许多潜在的优点，包括；1)对数据中的噪声进行更精确的建模；2)对x射线传输的物理建模的能力，从而为散射和探测器模糊的补偿提供了一个综合的方法；3)将先验信息纳入重建对象的能力。我们的假设是，与反向投影断层合成和传统的双视图数字乳房x线摄影相比，使用迭代重建方法的乳房断层合成可以提供更好的恶性病变检测。为了验证这一假设，人类观察者心理物理学研究将使用商业原型乳房断层合成系统获得的患者数据，比较传统的双视图数字乳房x线照相术和不同重建方法的断层合成。我们还建议研究与乳腺断层合成的获得过程相关的一些问题，包括；1)不同的采集几何形状，2)不同程度的乳房压缩的影响，3)散射的影响，以及4)最优的抗散射网格。评估和优化不同的成像系统设计和采集过程将通过使用逼真的模拟乳房断层合成图像来评估病变检测的准确性。

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): The detection of lesions in conventional mammography is a difficult task, predominantly due to the masking effect of superimposed parenchyma! breast patterns. Limited angle, tomographic mammography, also referred to as breast tomosynthesis, is a technique that has been proposed to reduce this masking effect, by providing the radiologist with tomographic image slices through the breast. The goal of the proposed research is to investigate the use of iterative reconstruction methods for breast tomosynthesis. Iterative reconstruction methods have a number of potential advantages over some previously proposed tomosynthesis methods including; 1) a more accurate modeling of the noise in the data, 2) the capability for modeling the physics of x-ray transport, thus providing an integrated approach for compensation of scatter and detector blur, and 3) the capability of incorporating a priori information on the object to be reconstructed. Our hypothesis is that breast tomosynthesis using iterative reconstruction methods can provide improved detection of malignant lesions as compared to backprojection tomosynthesis, as well as to conventional two-view digital mammography. To test this hypothesis, human observer psychophysical studies will be performed comparing conventional two-view digital mammography and tomosynthesis with different reconstruction approaches using patient data acquired with a commercial prototype breast tomosynthesis system. We also propose to investigate a number of issues related to the acquisition process of breast tomosynthesis including; 1) alternative acquisition geometries, 2) the impact of varying levels of breast compression, 3) the impact of scatter, and 4) the optimal anti-scatter grid. Evaluation and optimization of different imaging system designs and acquisition processes will be conducted by evaluating lesion detection accuracy using realistically simulated tomosynthesis breast images.