Methods and apparatus for computed tomographic cardiac or organ imaging
AssigneeGE Medical Systems Global Technology Company, LLC
InventorDavid M. Hoffman
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Abstract
One aspect of the present invention is a method for imaging an organ of a patient that includes steps of: scanning a volume of a patient's body including an organ of the patient with a computed tomographic (CT) imaging system having a radiation source and detector coupled to a rotating gantry, the detector array having a z-direction parallel to an axis of rotation of the gantry and an x-direction transverse to the z-direction; acquiring attenuation data from a plurality of staggered half detector segments of the detector array; and reconstructing an image including the patient's organ using the acquired attenuation data.
Claims20
A method for imaging an organ of a patient comprising the steps of:
- scanning a volume of a patient's body including an organ of the patient with a computed tomographic (CT) imaging system having a radiation source and detector coupled to a rotating gantry, the detector array having a z-direction parallel to an axis of rotation of the gantry and an x-direction transverse to the z-direction;
- acquiring attenuation data from a plurality of staggered half detector segments of the detector array;
- and
- reconstructing an image including the patient's organ using the acquired attenuation data.
A radiation detector for an imaging system, said radiation detector having a centerline and comprising a plurality of staggered half detector segments abutted in regions about said centerline, said staggered half detector segments each comprising a plurality of detector modules.
A computed tomographic (CT) imaging system for imaging an organ of a patient, said CT system comprising:
- a rotating gantry having an axis of rotation (z-axis);
- a radiation source configured to rotate with the rotating gantry;
- and
- a multislice detector array configured to rotate with the rotating gantry and configured to acquire attenuation data from a patient between the radiation source and the detector, said detector array comprising a plurality of staggered half-detector segments and configured to provide attenuation data having a relatively higher spatial resolution near a centerline of said detector array and a relatively lower spatial resolution distal to said centerline,
- a data acquisition system configured to receive attenuation data from the detector, including the relatively lower spatial attenuation data and the relatively higher spatial resolution attenuation data, and
- an image reconstructor configured to utilize the attenuation data to reconstruct an image of the organ, including utilizing the relatively lower spatial resolution data, to thereby reduce artifacts in the image.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.