Radiation tomography apparatus and program for cardiac-gated imaging

• US 10,537,297 B2
• Filed: 09/18/2015
• Issued: 01/21/2020
• Est. Priority Date: 09/30/2014
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: GE Medical Systems Global Technology Company LLC (GE Healthcare Technologies, Inc.)
• Original Assignee: General Electric Company
• Inventors: Hagiwara, Akira
• Primary Examiner(s): Beg, Samah A
• Application Number:
  US15/514,895
• Publication Number:
  US 20170238893A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,586 Days
• Field of Search: None
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 6/00 Apparatus or devices for radiation diagnosis; Apparatus or devices for radiation diagnosis combined with radiation therapy equipment instruments measuring radiation intensity for application in the field of nuclear medicine, e.g. in vivo counting, G01T1/161; apparatus for taking X-ray photographs G03B42/02
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 6/025 Tomosynthesis
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 6/032 Transmission computed tomography [CT]
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 6/503 for diagnosis of the heart
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 6/54 Control of apparatus or devices for radiation diagnosis
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 6/541 involving acquisition triggered by a physiological signal

Abstract

A radiation tomography system is provided that includes a control unit to control a data collection system to acquire first data by scanning a first scan region centered on a first position in a body axis direction of a subject in synchronization with heartbeats, and second data by scanning a second scan region adjacent to the first scan region and centered on a second position in the body axis direction in synchronization with the heartbeats. A reconstructing unit is provided to reconstruct an image of a slice between the first position and second positions using the first and second data. The reconstructing unit determines a view-angle-range-based use rate for the first data and a view-angle-range-based use rate for the second data according to the position of the slice relative to the first and second positions.

Claims

1. A radiation tomography apparatus for performing cardiac-gated imaging on a subject using a data collection system comprising a radiation source and a detector rotating around said subject, said radiation tomography apparatus comprising:

a master controller including a scan control section for controlling said data collection system to acquire first scan data by a first scan for scanning a first scan region centering on a first position of said subject in a body axis direction in synchronization with heartbeats of said subject, and acquire second scan data by a second scan for scanning a second scan region adjacent to or partially overlapping said first scan region and centering on a second position of said subject in a body axis direction in synchronization with heartbeats of said subject; and

a data processing apparatus including a reconstructing section for reconstructing an image corresponding to a slice between said first position and said second position using said first and second scan data, said reconstructing section determining a view-angle-range-based use rate for said first scan data and a view-angle-range-based use rate for said second scan data according to a position of said slice relative to said first and second positions;

wherein said reconstructing section lowers the view-angle-range-based use rate for said second scan data for a position of said slice closer to said first position, and lowers the view-angle-range-based use rate for said first scan data for a position of said slice closer to said second position; and

wherein when the view-angle-range-based use rate for said first scan data or the second scan data is lower than 100%, data over a part of a view angle range corresponding to the first scan data or the second scan data, respectively, is used to reconstruct the image, but data over the other part of the view angle range is not used to reconstruct the image.

2. The radiation tomography apparatus as recited in claim 1, wherein said reconstructing section, when reconstructing a pixel in a reconstruction plane of said slice by back-projecting scan data for a radiation path passing through said pixel, changes a weight of said scan data according to an angle of said radiation path with respect to said reconstruction plane.

3. The radiation tomography apparatus as recited in claim 2, wherein said reconstructing section increases the weight of scan data for said radiation path for a smaller angle of said radiation path with respect to said reconstruction plane, and decreases the weight of the scan data for said radiation path for a larger said angle.

4. The radiation tomography apparatus as recited in claim 1, wherein said first and second scans each acquire scan data in a view angle range of 180 degrees plus a radiation fan beam angle;

and said scan control section controls said data collection system so that a difference between a central angle of the view angle range in said first scan and a central angle of the view angle range in said second scan is from 90 to 180 degrees.

5. The radiation tomography apparatus as recited in claim 4, wherein said scan control section controls said data collection system so that said difference is 180 degrees.

6. The radiation tomography apparatus as recited in claim 5, wherein said reconstructing section reconstructs an image corresponding to said slice using scan data in a view angle range of 360 degrees.

7. The radiation tomography apparatus as recited in claim 1, wherein when the position of the slice falls within the first scan region, the view-angle-range-based use rate for the first scan data is set to 100%.

8. The radiation tomography apparatus as recited in claim 1, wherein when the position of the slice falls within the second scan region, the view-angle-range-based use rate for the second scan data is set to 100%.

9. A non-transitory computer-readable medium storing a program that, when executed by a computer, causes the computer to generate signals to:

control a data collection system of a radiation tomography apparatus to acquire first scan data by a first scan for scanning a first scan region centering on a first position of a subject in a body axis direction in synchronization with heartbeats of said subject, and to acquire second scan data by a second scan for scanning a second scan region adjacent to or partially overlapping said first scan region and centering on a second position of said subject in a body axis direction in synchronization with heartbeats of said subject; and

reconstruct an image corresponding to a slice between said first position and said second position using said first and second scan data, and to determine a view-angle-range-based use rate for said first scan data and a view-angle-range-based use rate for said second scan data according to a position of said slice relative to said first and second positions;

wherein said first position of said first scan is 180 degrees from said second position of said second scan; and

wherein when the view-angle-range-based use rate for said first scan data or the second scan data is lower than 100%, data over a part of a view angle range corresponding to the first scan data or the second scan data, respectively, is used to reconstruct the image, but data over the other part of the view angle range is not used to reconstruct the image.