Patent ID: 8687763

Claim:
A method for operating an x-ray imaging system, said x-ray imaging system comprising an x-ray tube operated with a tube voltage and a tube current associated with said tube voltage, and a computerized control unit, said method comprising: from said computerized control unit, operating said x-ray imaging system to acquire x-ray projections in a multiphase examination of defined tissue of a patient to generate, in each phase of said multiphase examination, at least one image of said defined tissue; for each phase in said multiphase examination, providing a contrast-to-noise ratio to said computerized control unit that establishes a desired image quality of said at least one image to be generated in that phase; in said computerized control unit, determining a tube current for each tube voltage, among different potential tube voltages, that maintains said contrast-to-noise ratio constant in that phase; for each phase, determining in said computerized control unit a dose of x-ray radiation to be applied to the patient for each of said potential tube voltages and the determined tube current associated therewith; and from said computerized control unit, for each phase of said multiphase examination, setting a value of said tube voltage of said x-ray tube, from among said different potential tube voltages that causes a total dose of x-ray radiation applied to the patient for all of the phases of said multiphase examination to be as low as possible during acquisition of said x-ray projections.