Method and apparatus of CT imaging with voltage modulation
AssigneeGeneral Electric Company
InventorsJianying Li, Steven J. Woloschek, Thomas L. Toth, Jonathan R. Schmidt
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Abstract
A system and method of diagnostic imaging with reduced x-ray exposure to the scan subject during scanning includes acquiring a set of cardiac signals or other motion (cardiac mechanical motion or respiratory motion) related signals and determining and imaging profile therefrom. Pursuant to the imaging profile, voltage applied to an x-ray source is modulated to provide an energizing voltage during primary data acquisition stages and a reduced voltage during secondary or non-data acquisition stages. Voltage modulation repeats until sufficient data for image reconstruction has been acquired.
Claims21
A method of voltage modulation for computed tomography (CT) imaging comprising the steps of:
- acquiring a set of cardiac signals having a plurality triggering pulses;
- determining a period of delay after each triggering pulse;
- after each period of delay, energizing a high frequency electromagnetic energy source to a first voltage;
- acquiring a set of imaging data of a scan subject;
- and
- after acquiring the set of imaging data, energizing the high frequency electromagnetic energy source to a second voltage until the period of delay after a next triggering pulse.
A radiation emitting imaging system comprising:
- a high frequency electromagnetic energy projection source configured to project high frequency energy toward a scan subject;
- a detector assembly to receive high frequency electromagnetic energy attenuated by the scan subject and output a plurality of electrical signals indicative of the attenuation to a data acquisition system (DAS);
- a control configured to:
- determine a plurality of primary data acquisition stages and a plurality of secondary data acquisition stages;
- energize the high frequency electromagnetic energy projection source to a first voltage during each data acquisition stage to acquire primary imaging data;
- energize the high frequency electromagnetic energy projection source to a second voltage during each secondary data acquisition stage;
- and
- reconstruct an image of the scan subject from the imaging data acquired during each data acquisition stage.
A computer readable storage medium having a computer program stored thereon and representing a set of instructions that when executed by a computer causes the computer to:
- analyze a set of cardiac motion signals acquired from a set of EKG sensors from a torso region of a scan subject;
- determine from the set of cardiac motion signals a number of primary data acquisition stages and a number of secondary acquisition stages;
- transmit a first voltage modulation signal to a voltage source configured to energize an x-ray projection source used to project x-rays to the scan subject for data acquisition, the first voltage modulation signal configured to drive the voltage source to a first voltage for each primary data acquisition stage;
- acquire a set of imaging data;
- and
- transmit a second voltage modulation signal to the voltage source, the second voltage modulation signal being configured to drive the voltage source to a second voltage for each secondary acquisition stage.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.