Patent ID: 7415093

Claim:
A CT cardiac imaging system comprising: an ECG machine configured to output ECG data indicative of a cardiac cycle of a patient; an ultrasound machine configured to output ultrasound data indicative of at least one of a measured torsional, translational, rotational, and deformational motion of a heart of the patient; and a CT imaging apparatus comprising a data acquisition module including a rotatable gantry having a bore therethrough designed to receive the patient being translated through the bore by a movable table, the rotatable gantry having an x-ray source and an x-ray detector disposed therein to emit one of a fan beam of x-rays and a cone beam of x-rays toward the patient and receive x-rays attenuated by the patient, respectively, and the CT imaging apparatus further comprising a computer programmed to: receive the ECG data from the ECG machine in real-time; receive the ultrasound data from the ultrasound machine in real-time; control the data acquisition module to acquire CT data of the patient as a function of the real-time ECG data and the real-time ultrasound data; and reconstruct an image from the acquired CT data.