Patent ID: 6154516
Filing Date: 2000-11-28
Classification: A61B,Y10S

Abstract:
A CT scanner comprising:irradiating means and an examination region having a central axis extending in a z direction, said irradiating means emitting a beam of radiation that passes through the examination region as the irradiating means;follows a spiral path relative to a patient positioned in the examination region;detection means arranged to receive radiation emitted from the irradiating means after it has traversed the examination region;cardiac monitoring means for acquiring electrocardiogram data from the patient, said electrocardiogram data being used to accurately correlate phases of the patient's heart with data collected by the detection means;image reconstruction means for reconstructing image representations of the patient based on data received from the detection means and cardiac monitoring means;display means for selectively displaying the image representations in a human viewable format; and,control means for implementing a patient-specific scan protocol in response to measured patient characteristics and scanner characteristics, said patient-specific scan protocol determining a pitch of the spiral path and an image slice thickness such that neighboring image slices are at least contiguous along the z direction.