Two-dimensional slot x-ray bone densitometry, radiography and tomography
US6496557B2 · kind B2 · utility
Assignee
Inventors
Key dates
| Filing date | Jan 22, 2001 |
| Grant date | Dec 17, 2002 |
| Priority date | — |
| Expiry date | Jan 22, 2021 |
Classification
- Technology area (CPC G)Physics
- CPC primaryG01N2223/612
- WIPO fieldMeasurement
- WIPO sectorInstruments
Abstract
An x-ray system using a slot-shaped detector having n rows and m columns of pixels, where n<<m, and providing a variety of relative motions between a patient table and a source-detector unit, including translation along the length of the table, translation across the table, and rotation about the focal spot, and processing the pixel values in a variety of ways to produce information such a shadow graphic x-ray images, tomosynthetic images of surfaces that need not be planar, and bone density estimates. In another embodiment, tomographic images can be obtained directly, using a post-patient collimator that passes nearly all of the primary beam to the imager while eliminating nearly all of the scatter. A feedback loop can equalize the exposure for selected parts of the image substantially in real time.
Source: USPTO / EPO open patent data. Objective bibliographic and citation counts.