Coronary artery imaging with x-ray computed tomography (CT) is one of the most recent advancements in CT clinical applications. Although existing “state-of-the-art” clinical protocols today utilize helical data acquisition, it suffers from the lack of ability to handle irregular heart rate and relatively high x-ray dose to patients. In this paper, we propose a step-and-shoot data acquisition protocol that significantly overcomes these shortcomings. The key to the proposed protocol is the large volume coverage $urn:x-wiley:0094-2405:media:mp1078:mp1078-math-0001$ enabled by the cone beam CT scanner, which allows the coverage of the entire heart in 3 to 4 steps. In addition, we propose a gated complementary reconstruction algorithm that overcomes the longitudinal truncation problem resulting from the cone beam geometry. Computer simulations, phantom experiments, and clinical studies were conducted to validate our approach.

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Volume33, Issue11

November 2006

Pages 4236-4248

Step-and-shoot data acquisition and reconstruction for cardiac x-ray computed tomography

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Step-and-shoot data acquisition and reconstruction for cardiac x-ray computed tomography

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