A novel pre-processing technique for improving image quality in digital breast tomosynthesis

摘要

Purpose: Nonlinear pre-reconstruction processing of the projection data in computed tomography (CT) where accurate recovery of the CT numbers is important for diagnosis is usually discouraged, for such a processing would violate the physics of image formation in CT. However, one can devise a pre-processing step to enhance detectability of lesions in digital breast tomosynthesis (DBT) where accurate recovery of the CT numbers is fundamentally impossible due to the incompleteness of the scanned data. Since the detection of lesions such as micro-calcifications and mass in breasts is the purpose of using DBT, it is justified that a technique producing higher detectability of lesions is a virtue.