Patent ID: 6229869
Filing Date: 2001-05-08
Classification: A61B,Y10S

Abstract:
A computerized tomography system, comprising:a gantry having an aperture adapted to encircle an imaging object, and including a rotateably mounted x-ray source and an opposing detector array, a plane between said x-ray source and said detector array forming a gantry plane that is positionable along a longitudinal axis of said object, said frame adapted for tilt displacement of said gantry plane at a tilt angle relative to said longitudinal axis;said x-ray source rotateable about an axis of rotation perpendicular to said tilt angle and capable of emitting x-rays from a focal spot at a each of a plurality of views corresponding to a combination of a rotational angle value and an associated tilt angle value;said detector array having a plurality of detector elements forming a plurality of fan beam planes between each of said plurality of detector elements and said x-ray source, each of said plurality of fan beam planes having a center of rotation value along said axis of rotation, and each of said plurality of detector elements capable of receiving said emitted x-rays at each of said plurality of views and providing raw projection data indicating the intensity of the x-rays received at each of said plurality of views; anda computer system in communication with said detector array, said computer system having a memory to store data including data representative of said raw projection data, and said rotational angle value, said tilt angle value, and said center of rotation value corresponding to said raw projection data, said computer system further including program signals representative of an algorithm for constructing image data from said raw projection data, said algorithm shifting said center of rotation values associated with said image data by an offset amount that is a function of said tilt angle so that said image data is centered about said longitudinal axis of said object.