The potential of stationary digital tomosynthesis

Digital Tomosynthesis (DT) as a limited angle 3D imaging technique has already demonstrated its clinical superiority compared to planar 2D X-ray. Current systems however, are expensive, lack mobility and are often susceptible to motion breath artifacts due to long acquisition times. Innovative solutions to miniaturize and basically reinvent the X-ray source such as cold-cathode field emitters, allow for the creation of compact array of individual addressable emitters in the form of a flat panel source (FPS). The advantages of a device using an FPS compared to conventional X-rays and DT systems include the ability to acquire images from different angles without any physical movement, the option to create small and compact devices that can be used for bedside imaging and faster acquisition times that will likely reduce the number and severity of motion artefacts. These advantages will likely result in several clinical benefits that will also be discussed. Potential concerns will also be discussed such as a reduced stand-off-distance of the source to the detector, large incidence angles of x-rays and low signal-to-noise ratio of the individual frames which can lead to various effects such as magnification, scattering, and Poisson noise.