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.
