Radiographic apparatus

• US 6,463,116 B1
• Filed: 01/16/2002
• Issued: 10/08/2002
• Est. Priority Date: 03/13/2001
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Shimadzu Corporation
• Original Assignee: Shimadzu Corporation
• Inventors: Oikawa, Shiro
• Primary Examiner(s): BRUCE, DAVID VERNON
• Application Number:
  US10/046,085
• Publication Number:
  US 20020131546A1
• Time in Patent Office: 265 Days
• Field of Search: 378/4, 378/8, 378/15, 378/901
• US Class Current: 378/4
• CPC Class Codes: G06T 11/006 Inverse problem, transformation from projection-space into object-space, e.g. transform methods, back-projection, algebraic methods
• CPC Class Codes: G06T 2211/436 Limited angle
• CPC Class Codes: Y10S 378/901 Computer tomography program or processor

Abstract

A radiation source and an area detector are arranged across sectional planes of an object are driven to scan and pick up images of the sectional planes. A back projection unit performs an the image reconstruction to generate three-dimensional volume data of a region of interest of the object by projecting projection data detected in varied scan positions back to predetermined lattice points of a three-dimensional lattice virtually set to the region of interest. The back projection unit generates the three-dimensional volume data, with lattice spacing along a sectional axis extending substantially through the center of the region of interest and perpendicular to the sectional planes, among the three orthogonal axes of the three-dimensional lattice, made larger than lattice spacing in the two other directions. This reduces the amount of data back-projected, and shortens the processing time for the image reconstruction.

Claims

1. A radiographic apparatus for generating three-dimensional volume data of a region of interest of an object under examination by an image reconstruction of projection data acquired by radiographing the object from varied scan positions, and obtaining sectional images from the three-dimensional volume data, said apparatus comprising:

a radiation source for irradiating said object with penetrating electromagnetic waves;

an area detector for detecting electromagnetic waves transmitted through said object;

said radiation source and said area detector being arranged across sectional planes of the object and synchronously operable for scanning action; and

a back projection unit for performing the image reconstruction to generate three-dimensional volume data of the region of interest by projecting projection data detected in the varied scan positions back to predetermined lattice points of a three-dimensional lattice virtually set to the region of interest of the object radiographed;

said back projection unit generating the three-dimensional volume data, with lattice spacing along a sectional axis extending substantially through the center of the region of interest and perpendicular to the sectional planes among three orthogonal axes of the three-dimensional lattice, made larger than lattice spacing in the two other directions.

2. A radiographic apparatus as defined in claim 1, wherein one of said radiation source and said area detector is linearly movable in a first direction, and the other is linearly movable in synchronism therewith in a second direction counter to said first direction.

3. A radiographic apparatus as defined in claim 1, wherein said radiation source is revolvable in one of parallel planes opposed to each other across the object, and said area detector is revolvable in synchronism therewith in the other parallel plane in a direction counter to a direction of revolution of said radiation source.

4. A radiographic apparatus as defined in claim 1, wherein two arcuate tracks are set on a circumferential track around the object to be opposed to each other across the object, said radiation source being movable along one of said arcuate tracks, and said area detector being movable in synchronism therewith along the other arcuate track to maintain a fixed distance from said radiation source.

5. A radiographic apparatus as defined in claim 1, wherein the lattice spacing along the sectional axis has a length set based on a detection pixel length along the sectional axis which is a length of one pixel of said area detector projected to the sectional axis.

6. A radiographic apparatus as defined in claim 1, further comprising a low-pass filtering unit for applying a low-pass filter in a direction along the sectional axis of the projection data detected in the varied scan positions.

7. A radiographic apparatus as defined in claim 2, wherein the lattice spacing along the sectional axis has a length set based on a detection pixel length along the sectional axis which is a length of one pixel of said area detector projected to the sectional axis.

8. A radiographic apparatus as defined in claim 3, wherein the lattice spacing along the sectional axis has a length set based on a detection pixel length along the sectional axis which is a length of one pixel of said area detector projected to the sectional axis.

9. A radiographic apparatus as defined in claim 4, wherein the lattice spacing along the sectional axis has a length set based on a detection pixel length along the sectional axis which is a length of one pixel of said area detector projected to the sectional axis.

10. A radiographic apparatus as defined in claim 5, further comprising a low-pass filtering unit for applying a low-pass filter in a direction along the sectional axis of the projection data detected in the varied scan positions.

11. A radiographic apparatus as defined in claim 7, further comprising a low-pass filtering unit for applying a low-pass filter in a direction along the sectional axis of the projection data detected in the varied scan positions.

12. A radiographic apparatus as defined in claim 8, further comprising a low-pass filtering unit for applying a low-pass filter in a direction along the sectional axis of the projection data detected in the varied scan positions.

13. A radiographic apparatus as defined in claim 9, further comprising a low-pass filtering unit for applying a low-pass filter in a direction along the sectional axis of the projection data detected in the varied scan positions.

14. A radiographic apparatus as defined in claim 6, wherein said low-pass filtering unit includes a three-dimensional Fourier transform unit for performing a three-dimensional Fourier transform of the three-dimensional volume data generated by said back projection unit, a Fourier space low-pass filtering unit for applying a low-pass filter along the sectional axis of the Fourier space data after the three-dimensional Fourier transform, and a three-dimensional back Fourier transform unit for performing a three-dimensional back Fourier transform of the Fourier space data after application of the low-pass filter and putting the Fourier space data back to three-dimensional volume data.

15. A radiographic apparatus as defined in claim 6, wherein said low-pass filtering unit applies a low-pass filter for diffusing at least four times a detection pixel length along the sectional axis.

16. A radiographic apparatus as defined in claim 6, wherein said area detector is a flat panel detector having gate lines arranged in a direction along the sectional axis, said low-pass filtering unit performing a low-pass filtering by simultaneously turning on gates on a predetermined number of pixel lines corresponding to the direction along sectional axis.

17. A radiographic apparatus as defined in claim 6, further comprising a real space low-pass filtering unit for applying a low-pass filter along the sectional axis corresponding to predetermined times a detection pixel length along the sectional axis, to predetermined numbers of pixels of said area detector corresponding to the sectional axis.

18. A radiographic apparatus as defined in claim 10, wherein said low-pass filtering unit includes a three-dimensional Fourier transform unit for performing a three-dimensional Fourier transform of the three-dimensional volume data generated by said back projection unit, a Fourier space low-pass filtering unit for applying a low-pass filter along the sectional axis of Fourier space data resulting from the three-dimensional Fourier transform, and a three-dimensional back Fourier transform unit for performing a three-dimensional back Fourier transform of the Fourier space data to which the low-pass filter has been applied, thereby putting the Fourier space data back to three-dimensional volume data.

19. A radiographic apparatus as defined in claim 14, wherein high frequency components along the sectional axis of the Fourier space data to which the low-pass filter has been applied are cut, thereby generating a reduced number of sectional images of subsequent three-dimensional volume data undergoing the three-dimensional back Fourier transform by said three-dimensional back Fourier transform unit.

20. A radiographic apparatus as defined in claim 17, wherein said back projection unit is arranged to project the projection data after the low-pass filtering back to the three-dimensional lattice, with the lattice spacing along the sectional axis of the three-dimensional lattice set between a detection pixel length along the sectional axis and a diffusion length along the sectional axis.