Patent ID: 7158607

Claim:
A method of assisting recovery of an injury site of an acute or chronic injury to a brain or spinal cord of a subject, the method comprising: irradiating the injury site with at least one array of microbeams comprising at least two parallel, spatially distinct microbeams in an amount and spatially arranged to deliver a therapeutic dose of X-ray radiation to said injury site, said irradiating further comprising delivering the therapeutic dose with the at least one array of microbeams to the injury site repeatedly in a number n of sessions, each session being separated by a time interval, wherein the at least one array comprises a number n of angle-variable intersecting microbeam arrays, the method further comprising generating the angle-variable intersecting microbeam arrays, and said generating comprising: irradiating the injury site with one of the angle-variable intersecting microbeam arrays in one session; angularly displacing at least one of an X-ray radiation source generating the at least one array and the subject about an axis of rotation through a center of the injury site, wherein the axis of rotation is parallel to the at least two parallel, spatially distinct microbeams, to produce a second one of the angle-variable intersecting microbeam arrays; additionally irradiating the injury site with the second one of the angle-variable intersecting microbeam arrays after the time interval in a second session; and repeating said angularly displacing and additionally irradiating a number (n−1) times to generate the number n of angle-variable intersecting microbeam arrays, wherein the number n of angle-variable intersecting microbeam arrays intersect substantially only within the injury site, the injury site including a marginal volume surrounding injured tissue.