Ray-tracing-based reconstruction algorithms for digital breast tomosynthesis

As a breast-imaging technique, digital breast tomosynthesis has great potential to improve the diagnosis of early breast cancer over mammography. Ray-tracing-based reconstruction algorithms, such as ray-tracing back projection, maximum-likelihood expectation maximization (MLEM), ordered-subset MLEM (OS-MLEM), and simultaneous algebraic reconstruction technique (SART), have been developed as reconstruction methods for different breast tomosynthesis systems. This paper provides a comparative study to investigate these algorithms by computer simulation and phantom study. Experimental results suggested that, among the four investigated reconstruction algorithms, OS-MLEM and SART performed better in interplane artifact removal with a fast speed convergence. © 2015 SPIE and IS&T [DOI: 10.1117/1.JEI.24.2.023028]