Patent application number | Description | Published |
20090092219 | METHOD AND APPARATUS FOR PERFORMING DUAL-SPECTRUM CT WITH FAST KV MODULATION AT MULTIPLE-VIEW INTERVALS - A CT system includes a rotatable gantry having an opening for receiving a subject to be scanned, a rotatable gantry having an opening for receiving a subject to be scanned, an x-ray source configured to project x-rays having multiple energies toward the subject, and a generator configured to energize the x-ray source to a first voltage and configured to energize the x-ray source to a second voltage, the first voltage distinct from the second voltage. The system further includes a controller configured to cause the generator to energize the x-ray source to the first voltage for a first duration, acquire imaging data for at least one view during at least the first duration, after the first duration, cause the generator to energize the x-ray source to the second voltage for a second duration, and acquire imaging data for two or more views during at least the second duration. | 04-09-2009 |
20090161814 | METHOD FOR CALIBRATING A DUAL -SPECTRAL COMPUTED TOMOGRAPHY (CT) SYSTEM - A method for calibrating and reconstructing material density images in a dual-spectral computed tomography (CT) system | 06-25-2009 |
20110150171 | COMPUTED TOMOGRAPHY SYSTEM WITH DATA COMPRESSION AND TRANSFER - A computed tomography (CT) system that includes a rotational gantry and a stationary structure communicatively coupled to the rotational gantry is provided. The rotational gantry includes an X-ray source configured to emit an X-ray beam through a subject, an X-ray detector comprising one or more detector elements that receive incoming X-rays and to convert the incoming X-rays to image signals, and a data acquisition unit that processes the image signals to generate processed image data. The stationary structure is coupled to the rotational gantry via one or more slip rings that transfer the processed image data from the rotational gantry to stationary memory integral with the stationary structure via a bidirectional serial data exchange protocol. | 06-23-2011 |
20110150174 | MULTIPLE X-RAY TUBE SYSTEM AND METHOD OF MAKING SAME - An imaging system includes a rotatable gantry having an opening therein to receive a subject to be scanned and configured to rotate about a central axis in a rotation direction. The imaging system also includes a first x-ray source coupled to the rotatable gantry at a first position, wherein the first position is offset from the central axis of the rotatable gantry by a first distance. Further, the imaging system includes a second x-ray source coupled to the rotatable gantry at a second position, wherein the second position is offset from the central axis of the rotatable gantry by a second distance, wherein the second position is offset from the first position in a direction coincident with the rotation direction, and wherein the second position is offset from the first position in a direction parallel to the central axis. | 06-23-2011 |
20110211667 | DE-POPULATED DETECTOR FOR COMPUTED TOMOGRAPHY AND METHOD OF MAKING SAME - A system, method, and apparatus includes a computed tomography (CT) detector array having a central region with a plurality of central region detecting cells configured to acquire CT data of a first number of slices during a scan, a first wing along a first side of the central region, and a second wing along a second side of the central region opposite the first side. The first wing includes a plurality of first wing detecting cells configured to acquire CT data of a second number of slices during the scan. The second wing includes a plurality of second wing detecting cells configured to acquire CT data of a third number of slices during the scan. The second and third number of slices are less than the first number of slices. The first wing detecting cells are of a different type than the central region detecting cells. | 09-01-2011 |
20120014502 | ASYMMETRIC DE-POPULATED DETECTOR FOR COMPUTED TOMOGRAPHY AND METHOD OF MAKING SAME - A computed tomography (CT) detector array includes a central region substantially symmetric about a central axis thereof and includes a first plurality of x-ray detector cells configured to acquire CT data from a first number of detector rows during a scan, wherein the central axis is in a channel direction of the CT detector array and transverse to a slice direction of the CT detector array. A first wing is coupled to a first side of the central region, and a second wing is coupled to a second side of the central region opposite the first side. The first and second wings include respective second and third pluralities of x-ray detector cells and are each configured to acquire CT data from a number of detector rows that is less than the first number of detector rows. The CT detector array is asymmetric about the central axis of the central region. | 01-19-2012 |
20120163530 | ANODE TARGET FOR AN X-RAY TUBE AND METHOD FOR CONTROLLING THE X-RAY TUBE - Anode targets for an x-ray tube and methods for controlling x-ray tubes for x-ray systems are provided. One x-ray system includes a field-generator configured to generate a field, an electron beam generator configured to generate an electron beam directed towards a target and a voltage controller configured to control the electron beam generator to produce an electron beam at a first energy level and an electron beam at a second energy level. The x-ray system also includes a field-generator controller configured to control a field to deflect at least one of the electron beams, wherein the electron beam, at the first energy level, impinges on the target at a first contact position and the electron beam, at the second energy level, impinges on the target at a second contact position. The at the first contact position and at the second contact position is configured to filter x-rays. | 06-28-2012 |
20120177173 | METHOD AND APPARATUS FOR REDUCING IMAGING ARTIFACTS - A method for reducing imaging artifacts includes preprocessing a computed tomography (CT) projection data set to generate preprocessed CT projection data, filtering the preprocessed CT projection data using a mean-preserving filter (MPF) to reduce electronic noise, generating a sinogram using the filtered CT projection data, performing a minus logarithmic operation on the sinogram to generate a noise corrected image, and displaying the noise corrected image on a display. A imaging correcting module and a multi-modality imaging system are also described herein. | 07-12-2012 |
20130004050 | METHOD AND SYSTEM FOR SCATTER CORRECTION IN X-RAY IMAGING - Approaches for deriving scatter information using inverse tracking of scattered X-rays is disclosed. In certain embodiments scattered rays are tracked from respective locations on a detector to a source of the X-ray radiation, as opposed to tracking schemes that proceed from the source to the detector. In one such approach, the inverse tracking is implemented using a density integrated volume that reduces the integration steps performed. | 01-03-2013 |
20130058451 | METHOD OF DOSE REDUCTION FOR CT IMAGING AND APPARATUS FOR IMPLEMENTING SAME - A CT system includes an x-ray source configured to project an x-ray beam toward an object, a detector array, and a bowtie filter. The bowtie filter includes a first x-ray filtration region positioned to attenuate x-rays that pass through an isochannel of the detector array, a second x-ray filtration region positioned to attenuate x-rays that pass through channels of the detector array that are offcenter in a channel direction from the isochannel, and an x-ray attenuation material positionable to attenuate the x-rays that pass through the channels of the detector array that are offcenter in the channel direction from the isochannel. The CT system also includes a data acquisition system (DAS) connected to the detector array and configured to receive outputs from the detector array, and a computer programmed to acquire projections of imaging data of the object, and generate an image of the object using the imaging data. | 03-07-2013 |
20140056497 | SYSTEM AND METHOD FOR CORRECTING FOR METAL ARTIFACTS USING MULTI-ENERGY COMPUTED TOMOGRAPHY - A method is provided. The method includes acquiring a first dataset at a first energy spectrum and a second dataset at a second energy spectrum. The method also includes extracting a metal artifact correction signal using the first dataset and the second dataset or using a first reconstructed image and a second reconstructed image generated respectively from the first and the second datasets. The method further includes performing metal artifact correction on the first reconstructed image using the metal artifact correction signal to generate a first corrected image. | 02-27-2014 |
20140133719 | SYSTEM AND METHOD FOR MULTI-MATERIAL CORRECTION OF IMAGE DATA - A method is provided. The method includes acquiring projection data of an object from a plurality of pixels, reconstructing the acquired projection data from the plurality of pixels into a reconstructed image, performing material characterization and decomposition of an image volume of the reconstructed image to reduce a number of materials analyzed in the image volume to two basis materials. The method also includes generating a re-mapped image volume for at least one basis material of the two basis materials, and performing forward projection on at least the re-mapped image volume for the at least one basis material to produce a material-based projection. The method further includes generating multi-material corrected projections based on the material-based projection and a total projection attenuated by the object, which represents both of the two basis materials, wherein the multi-material corrected projections include linearized projections. | 05-15-2014 |
20140328448 | SYSTEM AND METHOD FOR MULTI-MATERIAL CORRECTION OF IMAGE DATA - A method is provided. The method includes acquiring projection data of an object from a plurality of pixels, reconstructing the acquired projection data from the plurality of pixels into a reconstructed image, performing material characterization and decomposition of an image volume of the reconstructed image to reduce a number of materials analyzed in the image volume to two basis materials. The method also includes generating a re-mapped image volume for at least one basis material of the two basis materials, and performing forward projection on at least the re-mapped image volume for the at least one basis material to produce a material-based projection. The method further includes generating multi-material corrected projections based on the material-based projection and a total projection attenuated by the object, which represents both of the two basis materials, wherein the multi-material corrected projections include linearized projections. | 11-06-2014 |
20140328450 | SYSTEM AND METHOD FOR REDUCING HIGH DENSITY ARTIFACTS IN COMPUTED TOMOGRAPHY IMAGING - An imaging system includes a rotatable gantry for receiving an object to be scanned, a generator configured to energize an x-ray source to generate x-rays, a detector positioned to receive the x-rays that pass through the object, and a computer. The computer is programmed to obtain knowledge of a metal within the object, scan the object using system scanning parameters, reconstruct an image of the object using a reconstruction algorithm, and automatically select at least one of the system scanning parameters and the reconstruction algorithm based on the obtained knowledge. | 11-06-2014 |