Spiral scan computed tomography apparatus with multiple x-ray sources
First Claim
1. A spiral scan computed tomography apparatus comprising:
- a gantry rotatable around a system axis extending through a measurement field;
a plurality of x-ray sources disposed on said gantry and co-rotatable therewith, each x-ray source having a focus and the respective foci of said x-ray sources being symmetrically disposed on a circle concentric with said measurement field;
support means for supporting an examination subject, said support means having a longitudinal access extending substantially parallel to said system axis;
means for producing relative motion along said longitudinal axis of said support means between said support means and said x-ray sources while said x-ray sources are rotated around said measurement field on said gantry for spirally scanning a subject on said support means with x-rays from said x-ray sources;
radiation detector means for detecting radiation attenuated by said subject while said subject is spirally scanned and for generating electrical signals corresponding thereto; and
computer means for generating a tomographic image of said subject from said electrical signals.
1 Assignment
0 Petitions
Accused Products
Abstract
A spiral scan computed tomography apparatus has multiple x-ray sources with their respective foci symmetrically arranged on a circle concentric with a measurement field around which the x-ray sources are rotated in order to spirally scan an examination subject while a relative motion between the x-ray sources and a patient support is produced along a longitudinal direction of the patient support. X-rays attenuated by the examination subject are detected by a stationary detector ring, or by a number of detector arrays which co-rotate with the x-ray sources on the gantry. The scan time can thereby be decreased in comparison to known systems or, within the same scan time a higher x-ray power can be achieved.
-
Citations
7 Claims
-
1. A spiral scan computed tomography apparatus comprising:
-
a gantry rotatable around a system axis extending through a measurement field; a plurality of x-ray sources disposed on said gantry and co-rotatable therewith, each x-ray source having a focus and the respective foci of said x-ray sources being symmetrically disposed on a circle concentric with said measurement field; support means for supporting an examination subject, said support means having a longitudinal access extending substantially parallel to said system axis; means for producing relative motion along said longitudinal axis of said support means between said support means and said x-ray sources while said x-ray sources are rotated around said measurement field on said gantry for spirally scanning a subject on said support means with x-rays from said x-ray sources; radiation detector means for detecting radiation attenuated by said subject while said subject is spirally scanned and for generating electrical signals corresponding thereto; and computer means for generating a tomographic image of said subject from said electrical signals. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6)
-
-
7. A method for obtaining a computed tomogram of a subject comprising:
-
symmetrically disposing a plurality of x-ray sources around a measurement field, each x-ray source having a focus and the respective foci of said x-ray sources being disposed on a circle concentric with said measurement field; placing a subject on a support having a longitudinal axis; rotating said plurality of x-ray sources around said subject on said support while producing a relative motion along said longitudinal axis between said x-ray sources and said support and thereby conducting a spiral scan of said subject with x-rays emitted by said plurality of x-ray sources; detecting x-rays attenuated by said subject during the spiral scan of said subject and generating electrical signals corresponding to the attenuated x-rays; and generating a tomographic image of said subject from said electrical signals.
-
Specification