Study of image quality in digital breast tomosynthesis by subpixel reconstruction

Yao Lu; Heang-Ping Chan; Jun Wei; Lubomir Hadjiiski; Ravi Samala

doi:10.1117/12.2008069

19 March 2013 Study of image quality in digital breast tomosynthesis by subpixel reconstruction

Yao Lu, Heang-Ping Chan, Jun Wei, Lubomir Hadjiiski, Ravi Samala

Proceedings Volume 8668, Medical Imaging 2013: Physics of Medical Imaging; 86680I (2013) https://doi.org/10.1117/12.2008069
Event: SPIE Medical Imaging, 2013, Lake Buena Vista (Orlando Area), Florida, United States

Abstract

In digital breast tomosynthesis (DBT), the reconstructed image quality of small objects such as microcalcifications are limited by the detector resolution and the reconstruction voxel dimensions used, in addition to the inherent in-plane and inter-plane blurring due to limited-angle image acquisition. We are investigating the effects of subpixel reconstruction on the image quality of microcalcifications. In this study, subpixel projection images were generated by polynomial interpolation of the gray level values of the original projection images to reduce the pixel pitch by a factor of 2 to 4. The voxel dimensions in the reconstruction volume were varied. The in-plane voxel dimensions were chosen to match the pitch in the subpixel projection images while the voxel dimension in the depth-direction was varied systematically to study the relative effects. DBT scans of human subjects with microcalcifications were acquired with a GE prototype DBT system at 0.1 mm x 0.1 mm pixel pitch. In addition, computer modeling of the same system was used to generate simulated DBT projections of small spheres as a surrogate for microcalcifications. DBT volumes corresponding to the subpixel projections were reconstructed with SART. The FWHMs of the line profiles of the simulated microcalcifications on their in-focus DBT slices and FWHMs of the inter-plane artifact spread function (ASF) in the depth-direction were used for comparison of reconstruction quality. The results indicated that subpixel reconstruction increased the object contrast and reduced the inter-plane blurring to a certain extent. Further work is underway to study the dependence of the trade-off between image quality and reconstruction voxel dimensions on the image acquisition parameters (total scan angle, angular increment) of the DBT system and the properties of the objects of interest.

Citation Download Citation

Yao Lu, Heang-Ping Chan, Jun Wei, Lubomir Hadjiiski, and Ravi Samala "Study of image quality in digital breast tomosynthesis by subpixel reconstruction", Proc. SPIE 8668, Medical Imaging 2013: Physics of Medical Imaging, 86680I (19 March 2013); https://doi.org/10.1117/12.2008069

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