System and Method of Stationary Source Computed Tomography

Description:

Cardiovascular computing tomography (CVCT) has been successfully applied for the diagnosis of a series of heart diseases. However, the limitations of temporal and spatial resolution and radiation dose inhibit the utilization of CVCT for more clinical applications. The specific primary bottlenecks fo the current CVCT include the difficulties of the synchronization with high or arrhythmic heart rates, the inability to measure blood flow, the detection of vulnerable plaques, the separation of calcium from iodine signals, the study of myocardial micro-vascular structure and perfusion, as well as the risk of ionizing radiation exposure. The recent technical innovations in the fields of x-ray sources and reconstruction methods indicate the immense potential for CVCT advancement. Our team proposes an innovative cardiac CT architecture to overcome these obstacles, which systematically integrates carbon nanotube (CNT) x-ray sources and interior tomography methods. This novel architecture will provide unprecedented capability for in vivo tomographic, morphologic and physiologic measurement.