Patent ID: 6236708
Filing Date: 2001-05-22
Classification: A61B

Abstract:
A tomographic imaging system comprising:a support surface for stationarily supporting a region of interest of a patient to be imaged;a flat panel detector stationarily mounted parallel to the patient support surface, the flat panel detector being larder than the region of interest in planes parallel to the patient support surface;an x-ray source for generating penetrating radiation, the x-ray source being movably mounted on an opposite side of the region of interest from the flat panel detector such that the penetrating radiation from the x-ray source passes through the region of interest and is received by the flat panel detector;a moving system for moving the x-ray source relative to the region of interest such that the penetrating radiation passing from the x-ray source to the flat panel detector passes through the region of interest at a plurality of angles and impinges upon a plurality of different portion of the flat panel detector, the flat panel detector being accessed to generate a plurality of views corresponding to each of a plurality of the angular orientations between the x-ray source and the region of interest;a reconstruction processor for reconstructing the plurality of views into a tomographic image, the reconstruction processor including:a means for sorting the views by the angle with which the radiation passed through the region of interest and spatially shifting the views in accordance with said angle;a means for spatially shifting and interpolating the views in accordance with each of a plurality of selected focal planes; and,a means for summing the views spatially shifted in accordance with each of the focal planes to generate a slice image corresponding to each focal plane;an image memory for storing the slice images; anda video processor for converting selected portions of the slice images in the image memory into an appropriate format for display on a monitor.