X-ray CT scanner with two-dimensional X-ray detector having unequal element pitch in slice-thickness direction

摘要

A multi-slice X-ray CT scanner is provided to realize high resolution and a wide scanned region in a slice-thickness direction for an object. In the X-ray CT scanner, an X-ray beam for slice imaging is radiated toward an object and scanned in a predetermined slice-thickness direction, a direction orthogonal to the slice-thickness direction being defined as a channel direction. The scanner comprises a two-dimensional X-ray detector, a data acquisition system, and an electrically combining unit. The detector has a plurality of X-ray detecting elements arranged in a two-dimensional array of both rows in the slice-thickness direction and columns in the channel direction, the detecting elements of each row being arranged in unequal pitches. The data acquisition system has a plurality of data acquiring elements arranged in a two-dimensional array of rows and columns, acquiring signals detected by the two-dimensional X-ray detector, and producing digital data proportional to the detected signals. The electrically combining unit electrically combines more than two columns of all the columns in the array of the X-ray detecting elements into at least two columns of all the columns in the array of the data acquiring elements in accordance with a given slice imaging condition. For example, each row of the array of the data acquiring elements are less in number of elements than each row of the array of the X-ray detecting elements.