Cardiac imaging with CT scanner
US4547892A · kind A · utility
Assignee
Inventors
Key dates
| Filing date | Dec 26, 1979 |
| Grant date | Oct 15, 1985 |
| Priority date | — |
| Expiry date | Dec 26, 1999 |
Classification
- Technology area (CPC G)Physics
- CPC primaryG06T2211/412
- WIPO fieldMedical technology
- WIPO sectorInstruments
Abstract
The patient's ECG signal is employed in a traverse-and-rotate type CT scanner as a time base for triggering the beginning of a traverse such that the traveling beam reaches the heart at a desired phase of the cardiac cycle. For a purely-rotational-type CT scanner, continuously generated scan data is only stored for corresponding phases of successive cardiac cycles. Alternatively, gating of the beams themselves can be controlled by the ECG signal. The use of a pacemaker to stabilize the cardiac period is described along with a system for recognizing unacceptable variations in the cardiac period. In a traverse-and-rotate-type fan-beam CT scanner, the effective beam width is narrowed to hasten the traverse of the heart.
Source: USPTO / EPO open patent data. Objective bibliographic and citation counts.