Patent ID: 7227923

Claim:
A method for Computed Tomography (CT) imaging, the method comprising: rotating a gantry at a substantially slow rotation speed about a volume of interest, wherein the gantry comprises a combination of X-ray source points, and wherein the X-ray source points comprise one or more discrete emission points and an arc of discrete or continuous X-ray source points; obtaining projection data from the combination of X-ray source points, comprising: obtaining a first projection data set by individually activating the one or more discrete emission points at multiple angular positions about the volume of interest; and obtaining a second projection data set at a plurality of view angle positions, by activating the arc of discrete or continuous X-ray source points to emanate X-ray beams illuminating a central region of interest; and performing a suitable reconstruction based on the projection data obtained from the combination of X-ray source points, and generating one or more reconstructed images.