Abstract: Medical images are acquired in a tomosynthesis process. Processed 3D volume data representing a target acquired from scanning may be viewed from a set of forward projection directions, in which one or more forward projections through the processed 3D volume data is oblique relative to a central acquisition direction of the scanning process. The first set of forward projections is then displayed as a set of synthetic mammograms. Therefore, a medical practitioner can more easily identify abnormalities within a target volume, because the relative displacement of abnormalities at different depths in the target volume will change at different rates dependent on the viewing angle as the viewing position is moved around the target.

Abstract: A method and related apparatus (VS) for synthetic projection images, in particular synthetic 2D mammograms (S) formed from a 3D image volume T made up of slices (SL). It is proposed to compute a forward projection (FP) using a weighted average function that is implemented by a filter (FL). The filter function (FL) is configured such that that voxels in a slice with maximum sharpness are assigned highest weights thereby avoiding blurring by averaging with structurally less relevant slices.

Abstract: The present invention relates medical imaging, more particularly to the display of medical images acquired in a tomosynthesis process. Processed 3D volume data representing a target acquired from scanning may be viewed from a set of forward projection directions, in which one or more forward projections through the processed 3D volume data is oblique relative to a central acquisition direction of the scanning process. The first set of forward projections is then displayed as a set of synthetic mammograms. Therefore, a medical practitioner can more easily identify abnormalities within a target volume, because the relative displacement of abnormalities at different depths in the target volume will change at different rates dependent on the viewing angle as the viewing position is moved around the target.

Abstract: A method and related apparatus (VS) for synthetic projection images, in particular synthetic 2D mammograms (S) formed from a 3D image volume T made up of slices (SL). It is proposed to compute a forward projection (FP) using a weighted average function that is implemented by a filter (FL). The filter function (FL) is configured such that that voxels in a slice with maximum sharpness are assigned highest weights thereby avoiding blurring by averaging with structurally less relevant slices.