X-ray diagnostics apparatus for tomosynthesis having a reference object in fixed relationship to a radiation emitter

• US 5,896,437 A
• Filed: 05/19/1997
• Issued: 04/20/1999
• Est. Priority Date: 05/17/1996
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• Current Assignee: Sirona Dental Systems GmbH (Sirona Dental Systems Incorporated)
• Original Assignee: Sirona Dental Systems GmbH & Co. KG.
• Inventors: Ploetz, Josef
• Primary Examiner(s): Church, Craig E.
• Application Number:
  US08/858,602
• Time in Patent Office: 701 Days
• Field of Search: 378/2, 378/162
• US Class Current: 378/2
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 6/025 Tomosynthesis
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 6/08 Auxiliary means for directing the radiation beam to a particular spot, e.g. using light beams

Abstract

An X-ray diagnostics apparatus for tomosynthesis has a radiation emitter and a reference object exclusively connected thereto so that the reference object has a fixed reference relationship to the radiation emitter. It is thus possible to determine the spacing of the radiation emitter from the radiation receiver and from the examination subject, the radiation angle and the transirradiation direction on the basis of the signals obtained from the radiation receiver upon transirradiation of the reference subject without having the reference object representing an impediment in the region of the examination subject.

Claims

1. An X-ray diagnostic apparatus for tomosynthesis comprising:

a radiation emitter which emits an X-ray beam;

a reference object disposed in said X-ray beam;

a radiation receiver which is struck by said X-ray beam, attenuated by said reference object and an examination subject, and which emits electrical signals corresponding to X-rays incident thereon;

means for mounting said reference object in said X-ray beam by exclusively connecting said reference object to said radiation emitter for giving said reference object a fixed reference relationship to said radiation emitter; and

means for generating a tomosynthesis image of said examination subject from said electrical signals.

2. An X-ray diagnostic apparatus as claimed in claim 1 wherein said reference object comprises at least two sub-objects.

3. An X-ray diagnostic apparatus as claimed in claim 2 wherein each of said sub-objects is formed as a beam, and wherein said sub-objects cross each other.

4. An X-ray diagnostic apparatus as claimed in claim 2 wherein said reference object comprises at least three subobjects disposed in an arrangement relative to each other deviating from a straight line.

5. An X-ray diagnostic apparatus as claimed in claim 4 wherein said sub-objects form a geometrical body.

6. An X-ray diagnostic apparatus as claimed in claim 5 wherein said sub-objects form a polygon.

7. An X-ray diagnostic apparatus as claimed in claim 4 wherein said at least three sub-objects each comprise a sphere.

8. An X-ray diagnostic apparatus as claimed in claim 4 wherein said at least three sub-objects each comprise disks.

9. An X-ray diagnostic apparatus as claimed in claim 2 wherein said at least two sub-objects have respectively different radiation absorption characteristics.

10. An X-ray diagnostic apparatus as claimed in claim 1 wherein said reference object comprises a plurality of regions with at least two of said regions having different radiation-absorbing characteristics.