Reconstruction implementation based on a flat panel detector cone beam breast CT

Abstract

Flat panel detector based cone beam breast imaging CT can provide 3-D image of the scanned breast with 3-D isotropic spatial resolution, overcoming the disadvantage of the superimposition of structure associated with X-ray projection mammography that makes a small carcinoma (a few millimeters in size) difficult to detect when it is occult or in dense breast, which leads to a high false-positive biopsy rate. Circular scan CBBCT is the most desirable mode due to its simple geometrical configuration and potential applications in functional imaging. Only circular scan, however, can't provide the sufficient information for nearly exact reconstruction, and thus resulting in the reconstructed image artifacts, such as density drop and geometrical deformation when the cone angle becomes large. In order to combat this drawback, a circle plus sparse helical line scan scheme is proposed. Computer simulation on mathematic breast phantom testifies the practical feasibility of the new scheme and correction of those artifacts to a certain degree.