Methods and apparatus for cardiac imaging with conventional computed tomography
AssigneeGeneral Electric Company
InventorsJiang Hsieh, Tin-Su Pan, Yun Shen, Steve John Woloschek, Mark E. Woodford, Kishore C. Acharya
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Abstract
A method and apparatus for imaging a heart with a scanning computed tomography (CT) imaging system. A cardiac cycle of a patient is measured. The patient's heart is then scanned with the scanning CT imaging system at an angular rate asynchronous to the measured cardiac cycle to obtain image data. An image of the patient's heart is then assembled from chronologically discontinuous segments of the image data. The image is representative of a selected portion of the cardiac cycle.
Claims50
A method for imaging a heart with a scanning computed tomography (CT) imaging system, said method comprising the steps of:
- measuring a cardiac cycle of a patient;
- selecting view angle extents for a plurality of segments of data to equalize temporal resolution of the segments of data after a weighting function is applied;
- scanning the patient's heart with the scanning CT imaging system at an angular rate asynchronous to the measured cardiac cycle to obtain image data, wherein the image data includes quiescent image data obtained at a first view angle during a first gantry rotation and quiescent image data obtained at a second view angle different than the first view angle during a second gantry rotation;
- and
- assembling an image of the patient's heart representative of a selected portion of the cardiac cycle from chronologically discontinuous segments of the image data.
A scanning computed tomography (CT) imaging system for imaging a heart, said system configured to:
- compute a cardiac cycle of a patient from an EKG signal;
- select view angle extents for a plurality of segments of data to equalize temporal resolution of the segments of data after a weighting function is applied;
- scan the patient's heart a plurality of times at a cycle rate asynchronous to the measured cardiac cycle to obtain image data, wherein the image data includes quiescent image data obtained at a first view angle during a first gantry rotation and quiescent image data obtained at a second view angle different than the first view angle during a second gantry rotation;
- and
- assemble an image of the patient's heart representative of a selected portion of the cardiac cycle from chronologically discontinuous segments of the image data.
A method for imaging a heart with a scanning computed tomography (CT) imaging system, said method comprising the steps of:
- measuring a cardiac cycle of a patient;
- scanning the patient's heart with the scanning CT imaging system at an angular rate asynchronous to the measured cardiac cycle to obtain image data, wherein the image data includes quiescent image data obtained at a first view angle during a first gantry rotation and quiescent image data obtained at a second view angle different than the first view angle during a second gantry rotation;
- assembling a plurality of segments of data representative of a set of overlapping view angle ranges;
- and
- reconstructing an image of the patient's heart representative of a selected portion of the cardiac cycle from chronologically discontinuous segments of the image data.
A method for imaging a heart with a scanning computed tomography (CT) imaging system, said method comprising the steps of:
- measuring a cardiac cycle of a patient;
- scanning the patient's heart with the scanning CT imaging system at an angular rate of at least one of approximately 0.8 rotations per second when the heart beat is between approximately 60 and approximately 65 beats per minute, approximately 0.7 rotations per second when the heart beat is between approximately 65 and approximately 75 beats per minute, approximately 0.6 rotations per second when the heart beat is between approximately 70 and approximately 88 beats per minute, and approximately 0.5 rotations per second when the heart beat is between approximately 89 and approximately 100 beats per minute to collect image data, wherein the image data includes quiescent image data obtained at a first view angle during a first gantry rotation and quiescent image data obtained at a second view angle different than the first view angle during a second gantry rotation;
- reconstructing an image of the patient's heart representative of a selected portion of the cardiac cycle from chronologically discontinuous segments of the image data.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.