The patent badge is an abbreviated version of the USPTO patent document. The patent badge does contain a link to the full patent document.
The patent badge is an abbreviated version of the USPTO patent document. The patent badge covers the following: Patent number, Date patent was issued, Date patent was filed, Title of the patent, Applicant, Inventor, Assignee, Attorney firm, Primary examiner, Assistant examiner, CPCs, and Abstract. The patent badge does contain a link to the full patent document (in Adobe Acrobat format, aka pdf). To download or print any patent click here.
Patent No.:
Date of Patent:
Jul. 03, 2001
Filed:
Oct. 15, 1999
Jiang Hsieh, Brookfield, WI (US);
Mark Woodford, Waukesha, WI (US);
General Electric Company, Schenectady, NY (US);
Abstract
In one aspect, the present invention is a method for producing CT images of a patient's heart suitable for calcification scoring, in which the heart has a cardiac cycle. The method includes steps of acquiring data representative of a first scout-scanned CT image of physical locations of the patient's body including at least a portion of the patient's heart at phases &phgr;,(L) of the cardiac cycle, acquiring data representative of a second scout-scanned CT image of the physical locations of the patient's body including at least a portion of the patient's heart at phases &phgr;,(L) of the cardiac cycle different from &phgr;,(L) at physical positions L of interest, and determining a difference image from the acquired data representative of the first scout-scanned CT image and the acquired data representative of the second scout-scanned CT image data. It is not necessary that &phgr;,(L) and &phgr;,(L) be constant as a function of position L.