Patent ID: 8348506

Claim:
An apparatus for cone beam computed tomography of an extremity of a patient, the apparatus comprising: a digital radiation detector; a first device to move the detector along at least a portion of a circular detector path, the at least a portion of the detector path extending so that the detector is configured to move both at least partially around a first extremity of the patient and between the first extremity and a second, adjacent extremity of the patient, the at least a portion of the detector path having a radius R 1 that is sufficiently long to allow the first extremity of the patient to be positioned approximately at a center of the detector path; a radiation source; a second device to move the source along at least a portion of a concentric circular source path having a radius R 2 greater than the radius R 1 , the radius R 2 being sufficiently long to allow adequate radiation exposure of the first extremity for an image capture by the detector; and a first circumferential gap in the source path to allow the second extremity to be positioned in the first circumferential gap during the image capture.