System for image scanning and acquisition with low-dose radiation

A method employed by a medical imaging system for adaptively acquiring anatomical images, comprising the activities of:

• automatically adjusting dimensions of a spatial cross section of an X-ray beam of radiation into a non-rectangular shape using a shape adaptive collimator, in response to a first control signal indicating shape of a region of interest of patient anatomy, said shape adaptive collimator including a plurality of automatically movable different portions of X-ray absorbent material;
• automatically generating a heart rate related synchronization signal derived from a patient cardiac function related parameter, said synchronization signal enabling adaptive variation in timing of image acquisition within an individual heart cycle and between successive heart cycles of each individual image frame of a plurality of sequential image frames;
• adaptively varying timing of acquiring anatomical images of said region of interest with reduced patient X-ray exposure using an adjusted X-ray beam of radiation having a non-rectangular shape in response to said synchronization signal;
• and
• presenting acquired anatomical images on a reproduction device.

A method employed by a medical imaging system for adaptively acquiring anatomical images, comprising the activities of:

• automatically adjusting dimensions of a spatial cross section of an X-ray beam of radiation in response to a first control signal;
• automatically adjusting a filter including at least one portion of X-ray filtering material to attenuate X-ray radiation in response to a second control signal.
• automatically generating a heart rate related synchronization signal derived from a patient cardiac function related parameter, said synchronization signal enabling adaptive variation in timing of image acquisition within an individual heart cycle and between successive heart cycles of each individual image frame of a plurality of sequential image frames;
• adaptively varying timing of acquiring anatomical images of said region of interest with reduced patient X-ray exposure using an adjusted cross section X-ray beam of radiation attenuated by an adjusted filter in response to said synchronization signal;
• and
• presenting acquired anatomical images on a reproduction device.