Adaptation of image quality using various filter setups in the filtered backprojection approach for digital breast tomosynthesis

Abstract

The main limitations of conventional projection mammography consist in tissue overlap and missing depth information. These deficiencies are intended to be reduced by the new technique of digital breast tomosynthesis. From a set of radiographic projections, acquired at different view angles in a linear tomosynthesis research system setup, 3-D slices of the scanned breast region are reconstructed. As the method of choice for the reconstruction we use filtered backprojection. By applying different filters with task-adapted parameters this method allows to control the image quality regarding noise, spatial resolution and artifacts. In order to investigate the basic effects of the various settings in the filtering step the method is first applied to simulated data. The impact of the selected filter functions is then demonstrated with clinical data. © Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg 2006.