Iterative Reconstruction for Breast Tomosynthesis

描述(申请人提供)：在传统的乳房X光检查中，发现病变是一项困难的任务，主要是由于叠加的实质的掩蔽作用！乳房图案。有限角度的断层乳房X光摄影，也被称为乳房断层合成，是一种通过向放射科医生提供穿过乳房的断层图像切片来减少这种掩蔽效应的技术。这项研究的目的是研究迭代重建方法在乳房断层合成中的应用。与先前提出的一些层析合成方法相比，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准确的建模，2)对X射线传输的物理进行建模的能力，从而提供用于补偿散射和探测器模糊的综合方法，以及3)结合关于待重建对象的先验信息的能力。我们的假设是，与反投影断层合成以及传统的双视角数字乳房摄影相比，使用迭代重建方法的乳腺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，将使用商业原型乳房断层合成系统获取的患者数据，对传统的双视数字乳房X光摄影和断层合成与不同重建方法进行比较，以进行人类观察者心理物理研究。我们还建议研究与乳房断层合成的采集过程相关的一些问题，包括：1)不同的采集几何结构，2)不同程度的乳房压缩的影响，3)散射的影响，以及4)最佳的抗散射网格。通过使用真实模拟的断层合成乳房图像评估病变检测准确性，将对不同成像系统设计和采集过程进行评估和优化。

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.