US 2010/0166286 A1 · Motion artefact reduction in CT scanning

Abstract

An example of sporadic motion that causes difficulty in CT scanning is gas pockets moving around the rectum. The invention allows the automatic detection of such movements, by enhancing low density features around the prostate in the individual X-ray images, projecting these features on the cranio-caudal axis (assuming that the gas predominantly moves in this direction) to form a 1-dimensional image, and combining successive ID projections to form a 2D image. Moving gas will produce tilted lines in this image, identifying an angular range that needs to be discarded. Such a process can be used in an image processing apparatus of a CT scanner.

Claims18

Dependent claims

An image processing method comprising the steps of;

gathering a collection of two-dimensional x-ray images of a subject, ordered in time sequence;
for each image of the collection, projecting at least part of the image to a projection axis, to derive a collection of one-dimensional images aligned with the projection axis and whose pixel values represent a sum of pixel values in the respective two-dimensional image transverse to the projection axis;
assembling the one-dimensional images to form a single two dimensional image having a spatial dimension aligned with the projection axis and a time dimension transverse to the projection axis;
detecting features that are tilted in the two dimensional image with respect to the time and spatial dimensions.

1 more element

Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.

Motion artefact reduction in CT scanning

Life of this patent

Motion artefact reduction in CT scanning

Life of this patent

Abstract

Claims18