Patent ID: 9538976
Date: 2017-01-10
CPC Classifications: A61B,A61N

Claim:
1. A method of optimizing 4D cone beam computed tomography (4DCBCT) imaging, comprising: a. generating by scanner projections of a target in a single half fan acquisition or a single full fan acquisition using an x-ray source, wherein said single half fan acquisition comprises a single 360-degree gantry rotation, wherein said full fan acquisition comprises a single 180-degree gantry rotation plus a fan angle ω; b. forming by said scanner a cone beam computed tomography (CBCT) scan of said target from said projections, wherein said CBCT comprises a 3D image of said target; and c. controlling by an appropriately programmed computer a modulated rotation speed of said gantry and projection acquisition of said CBCT in real-time according to a measured patient respiratory signal using continuous gantry motion and ungated projection acquisition, wherein said ungated projection acquisition comprises segmenting a breathing cycle into distinct fractions of said breathing cycle, wherein each said distinct fraction of said breathing cycle defines a breathing cycle bin location, wherein two degrees of freedom comprise controlling the motion of said gantry and a varied time interval between said ungated projection acquisition, wherein an image is acquired at each said breathing cycle bin location during said single half fan acquisition or said single full fan acquisition, wherein an angle of said gantry is regulated and a rate of a projection pulse from said x-ray source is regulated in response to said respiratory signal, wherein a set of evenly spaced said scanner projections are obtained in a number of phase bins or in a number of displacement bins during said breathing cycle, wherein in each said breathing cycle bin location, an image is reconstructed from said scanner projections to output a 4D view of the anatomy of said patient, wherein the motion of the lungs of said patient and a tumor of said patient are observed during said breathing cycle, wherein said real-time ungated projection acquisition of said CBCT forms an optimized 4DCBCT.