Patent Document ID: 20020122528
Application ID: 09751074
Patent Status: 0

Claim One:
1. A method for imaging an object utilizing a computed tomographic (CT) imaging system, the CT imaging system having a radiation source and a multislice detector array on a rotating gantry, the radiation source configured to project a fan-shaped beam of radiation through an object to be imaged towards the detector array, and the detector array having a plurality of detector elements configured to produce electrical signals indicative of attenuation of the beam of radiation passing through the object, the CT imaging system also having a z-axis defined by an axis of rotation of the gantry, said method comprising the steps of: scanning an object at a selected helical pitch with a CT imaging system to acquire a set of attenuation measurements of the object; for each angle of the fan beam of radiation corresponding to a detector element of the detector array, identifying a direct set of attenuation measurements and a conjugate set of attenuation measurements, each said set of measurements comprising at least two measurements closest to a plane of reconstruction, the direct set of attenuation measurements being measurements that are acquired at a source angle &bgr; and a fan angle &ggr; and the conjugate set being measurements that are acquired at a source angle of either &bgr;&plus;&pgr;&plus;2&ggr; or &bgr;−&pgr;&plus;2&ggr; and a fan angle −&ggr;; arranging the measurements of the identified sets of measurements in pairs, including at least one short pair comprising a direct measurement and a conjugate measurement that are closest to the plane of reconstruction and on opposite sides of the plane of reconstruction, and one long pair comprising two direct measurements on opposite sides of the plane of reconstruction; weighting the direct measurements in accordance with their distance from the plane of reconstruction, wherein the weights of the short pair and the long pair are each normalized; blending the direct measurements of the short pair and the long pair in accordance with a blending function such that at a point at which the selected direct pair and the selected conjugate pair have a same z-axis location, the short pair contribution to the blend is weighted to zero, and the contribution increases at a distance further from the z-axis location; and filtering and backprojecting the weighted and blended data to reconstruct the image of the object.