OUT OF PLANE ARTIFACT REDUCTION IN DIGITAL BREAST TOMOSYNTHESIS AND CT

Reduction of artifacts in digital breast tomosynthesis and in computed tomography. Because of the limited angular range acquisition in DBT the reconstructed slices have reduced resolution in z-direction and are affected by artifacts. Out-of-plane blur caused by dense tissue and large masses complicates 3D visualization and reconstruction of thick slices volumes. The streak-like out-of-plane artifacts caused by calcifications and metal clips distort the true shape of calcification, an important malignancy predictor. Microcalcifications could be obscured by bright artifacts. The technique involves reconstructing a set of super resolution slices and predicting the “artifact-free” voxel intensity based on the corresponding set of projection pixels using a statistical model learned from a set of training data. The resulting reconstructed images are de-blurred and streak artifacts are reduced, visibility of clinical features, contrast and sharpness are improved, 3D visualization and thick-slice reconstruction is possible without the loss of contrast and sharpness.