Tomographic image reconstruction using cross-plane rays

摘要

A CT apparatus employing a cone beam of x-rays reduces image artifacts by employing full as opposed to half scans of less than 360 DEG . The present invention recognizes that rays of a cone beam that cross the imaging plane are not redundant with opposing rays in the scan, as is the case with the rays within the imaging plane. In a second embodiment, half scans of less than 360 DEG are obtained using in-plane and cross-plane rays of the cone beam and the data from the in-plane rays is used to estimate the missing data from that collected with the cross-plane rays.