Patent ID: 7742558

Claim:
A tomosynthesis mammography apparatus comprising; an x-ray source that emits an x-ray beam; a radiation detector on which said x-ray beam is incident; a compression plate and a support plate located between said x-ray source and said radiation detector in a beam path of said x-ray beam, said compression plate and said support plate being configured to retain and compress a breast therebetween; said x-ray source being configured to emit said x-ray beam to irradiate the breast between the compression plate and the support plate from a plurality of different directions, and said radiation detector being configured to detect x-rays in said x-ray beam, attenuated by the breast between said compression plate and support plate, from each of said different directions to generate a plurality of projection images of the breast; said compression plate having a side facing said support plate, which is in contact with said breast, and having a concave recess in said side that accommodates the breast therein; and a processor supplied with said projection images configured to execute a reconstruction algorithm to generate a 3D tomosynthesis image of the breast from said projection images.