General Electric Company

Naveen Stephan Chandra

Jiang Hsieh

Xiaoye Wu

Jiahua Fan

Bruno Kristiaan Bernard De Man

Thomas L Toth

Jed Douglas Pack

Mary Sue Kulpins

Daniel David Harrison

Naresh Kesavan Rao

Dan Xu

Oliver Richard Astley

Kristofer Daugirdas

Suresh Narayanan Narayanan

Peter Michael Edic

John Eric Tkaczyk

James Zhengshe Liu

James Wilson Rose

Sergio Lemaitre

Robert F Senzig

Glen Peter Koste

Jianjun Guo

Yanfeng Du

Ronald Dean Watkins

Abdelaziz Ikhlef

Uwe Wiedmann

David Allen Langan

Donald Thomas McGrath

Sandeep Dutta

Richard Louis Frey

Yannan Jin

Baojun Li

John Moore Boudry

Steven John Woloschek

Fang Frank Dong

Thomas Matthew Benson

Denis Perrillat-Amede

Shobhana Mani

Jean-Francois Larroux

Peter S Crandall

Toshihiro Rifu

Zhanyu Ge

Andrew C Johnson

A system for mounting a medical imaging device on a tablet arm is provided. In one embodiment the tablet arm includes an upper portion configured to rotate a mounted electronic device relative to a central axis of the upper portion and a lower portion coupled to the upper portion and extending downwards, away from the upper portion along a vertical axis perpendicular to the central axis, the upper portion and lower portion forming a hollow structure configured to house cables of an electronic device.

Methods and systems for a pivotable tablet mount

Mounted display screen

Methods and systems are provided for controlling an x-ray imaging system. In one embodiment, a method for an x-ray imaging system, includes acquiring, with the x-ray imaging system, a plurality of images as an x-ray tube current of the x-ray imaging system is ramping from a predefined x-ray tube current to an updated x-ray tube current, the updated x-ray tube current determined based on an estimated patient thickness estimated from a prior image acquired with the x-ray imaging system while the x-ray tube current is at the predefined x-ray tube current, combining the plurality of images into a final image, and outputting the final image for display via a display device.

Systems and method for x-ray imaging

Acquisition of X-ray transmission data at three or more energy levels is described. Various implementations utilize generator waveforms that utilize fast-switching, slow-switching, or a combination of fast- and slow-switching to transition between X-ray energy levels. In addition, various sampling arrangements for sampling and/or binning three or more energy levels of X-ray transmission data are discussed. The use of these data in subsequent processing steps, such for material decomposition and/or improvement of dual-energy material decomposition processing, are also described.

Multi-energy X-ray imaging

A CT system includes a gantry, an x-ray source, a detector, and a grating collimator that includes alternating first and second materials. The system includes a controller configured to emit a first beam of x-rays from a first focal spot and to a first detector pixel, wherein the first beam of x-rays passes along a ray and through one of the first materials of the grating collimator, and subsequently emit a second beam of x-rays from a second focal spot and to the first detector pixel, wherein the second beam of x-rays passes substantially along the ray and through one of the second materials of the grating collimator. The system includes a computer programmed to generate first and second kVp image datasets using data acquired from the first beam and second beams of x-rays, and reconstruct a basis material image of the object.

System and method for multi-energy computed tomography imaging

A method for reducing bandwidth required for transmission of data in a device having two portions rotating with respect to one another. The first portion includes a data acquisition system (DAS) having a charge-to-digital converter and a digital signal processor (DSP) configured to receive and compress digital data from the charge-to-digital processor. The second portion includes a computer configured to receive data from the DAS. The DAS and computer are communicatively coupled via a slip ring having a finite transmission bandwidth. The computer is configured to reconstruct and display an image using compressed data. The method includes using the DAS to compress scan data to a predetermined number of mantissa bits and a predetermined number of exponent bits, transmitting the compressed data from the first portion to the second portion across the slip ring, and using the transmitted compressed data to reconstruct and display an image of an object.

Methods and apparatus for data communication across a slip ring

An imaging system includes an x-ray source, a detector, a data acquisition system (DAS) operably connected to the detector, and a computer operably connected to the DAS. The computer is programmed to obtain CT scan data with two or more incident energy spectra, decompose the obtained CT scan data into projection CT data of a first basis material and a second basis material, generate a first basis material image and a second basis material image using the decomposed projection CT data, generate a first monochromatic image from the first basis material image and the second basis material image at a first energy that is selected based on an amount of correlated noise at the first energy, noise-reduce the first monochromatic image to generate a noise-reduced first monochromatic image, and generate a final monochromatic image based at least on the noise-reduced first monochromatic image.

System and method of optimizing a representation of dual energy spectral CT images

Systems and methods for multichannel noise reduce are provided. One method includes acquiring a multichannel signal, obtaining a noise correlation between a plurality of channels of the multichannel signal, and obtaining a signal characteristic in each of the plurality of channels. The method also includes removing signal noise based on (i) the correlated noise and (ii) at least one of an uncorrelated noise in each channel or the obtained signal characteristic in each channel.

Systems and methods for multichannel noise reduction

A system and method for material decomposition optimization in the image domain include a non-transitory computer readable medium has stored thereon a sequence of instructions which, when executed by a computer, causes the computer to access a reconstructed basis material image. For a first voxel of the reconstructed basis material image, the instructions also cause the computer to optimize a concentration of a pair of materials (a,b) in the first voxel exclusively in the image domain and based on a first probability based on random perturbations and a second probability based on random perturbations. The optimization is further based on a third probability based on known materials and a fourth probability based on concentrations of the pair of materials in a pair of voxels neighboring the first voxel.

System and method for material decomposition optimization in image domain

A CT system includes a gantry, an x-ray source configured to project x-rays toward an object, an x-ray detector positioned to receive x-rays from the x-ray source that pass through the object, a generator configured to energize the x-ray source to a first voltage and to a second voltage that is distinct from the first voltage, and a controller configured to cause the gantry to position the source and generator at a circumferential position during an imaging session, pass the object through the opening during the imaging session, cause the generator to energize the x-ray source to the first voltage and to the second voltage, acquire imaging data while the generator energizes the x-ray source to the first voltage and to the second voltage while the rotatable gantry is at the circumferential position, and generate an image using the imaging data.

Apparatus and method for spectral projection imaging with fast KV switching

A method and apparatus include acquisition of a view dataset based on x-rays received by a detector corresponding to a energy level, reconstruction of an initial image using the view dataset, the initial image comprising a plurality of metal voxels at respective metal voxel locations, and generation of a metal mask corresponding to the plurality of metal voxels within the initial image. The method and apparatus also include forward projection of the metal mask onto the view dataset to identify metal dexels in the view dataset, performance of a weighted interpolation based on the identified metal dexels to generate a completed view dataset, reconstruction of a final image using the completed view dataset, the final image comprising a plurality of image voxels corresponding to the metal voxel locations, and replacement of a portion of the plurality of image voxels corresponding to the metal voxel locations with smoothed metal values.

Method and apparatus for reduction of metal artifacts in CT images

A method is provided that includes acquiring a first set of image data from X-rays produced at a first energy level and a second set of image data from X-rays produced at a second energy level. The method includes generating a first noise mask for a first basis material and a second noise mask for a second basis material and removing pixels corresponding to cross contaminating structural information from the first noise mask and the second noise mask. The method includes processing a first materially decomposed image generated from the first set of image data and the second set of digital data using the second noise mask after removal of the cross contaminating structural information and processing a second MD image generated from the first set of image data and the second set of digital data using the first noise mask after removal of the cross contaminating structural information.

Noise reduction method for dual-energy imaging

A data acquisition system includes a charge-sensitive amplifier (CSA) configured to receive a charge from an x-ray detector, the CSA includes a high-gain electronic voltage amplifier, an electrical energy storage device coupled with the amplifier, and an electrical resistor coupled with the amplifier. The data acquisition system includes a baseline sampling circuit configured to receive an output from the CSA and to sample a baseline signal from the CSA, at least one discriminator coupled to an output of the CSA and to an output of the baseline sampling circuit, the at least one discriminator configured to output a voltage if the output of the CSA exceeds a threshold, and a counter coupled to an output of the discriminator and configured to output a digital signal indicative of a photon count received at the x-ray detector and based on the output from the CSA and on the signal from the CSA.

Readout electronics for photon counting and energy discriminating detectors

A CT system includes a rotatable gantry having an opening for receiving an object to be scanned, and a controller. The controller is configured to apply a first kVp for a first time period, apply a second kVp for a second time period, integrate two or more view datasets during the first time period, integrate one or more view datasets during the second time period, and generate an image using the datasets integrated during the first time period and during the second time period.

System and method of acquiring multi-energy CT imaging data

A CT system includes a generator configured to energize an x-ray source to a first kilovoltage (kVp) and to a second kVp, and a computer that is programmed to acquire a first view dataset with the x-ray source energized to the first kVp and a second view dataset with the x-ray source energized to the second kVp, generate a base correction image using the first view dataset and the second view dataset, and reconstruct a pair of base material images from the first view dataset and from the second view dataset. The computer is also programmed to estimate artifact correlation in the pair of base material images using the base correction image, generate a pair of final base material images and a final monochromatic image, and correct one of the pair of final base material images and the final monochromatic image at a keV value using the estimated artifact correlation.

System and method of image artifact reduction in fast kVp switching CT

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Kenosha, WI, United States of America

Naveen Stephan Chandra