ECG-based rotational angiography for cardiology

1. A C-arm X-ray system with synchronized ECG gating for enhanced cardiac soft-tissue imaging, comprising:

an X-ray source disposed on a C-arm for rotation in a circular path about a patient and configured to release X-ray radiation periodically and synchronously with an ECG-gating signal that is periodically activated at a fixed point in each cycle of the patient's heart, wherein said periodic synchronous release reduces the patient's accumulated X-ray radiation exposure during said cardiac soft-tissue imaging;

an X-ray image sensor disposed on the C-arm in a fixed opposing position to the X-ray source and configured to rotate with the source and receive the X-ray radiation;

an ECG unit for acquiring ECG data from the patient;

a digital image acquisition processor arranged in communication with the X-ray source, X-ray image sensor and ECG unit for acquiring 2D projection images by the X-ray image sensor at predetermined C-arm angulations at the release of the X-ray radiation synchronously in the presence of the periodic ECG-gating signals;

an image processor arranged in communication with the digital image acquisition processor to receive and process the series of 2D projection images and reconstruct a continuous 3D volumetric image of the patient's cardiac soft tissue therefrom; and

a user interface to allow user control of the C-arm X-ray system and to display the continuous 3D volumetric image.

2. The C-arm X-ray system as set forth in claim 1 , wherein the ECG-gating signal activates the X-ray source at a regular, fixed phase of the cardiac cycle at each angulation step of the C-arm as it rotates about the circular path.

3. The C-arm X-ray system as set forth in claim 1 , wherein the ECG-gated signal is generated automatically in the digital image acquisition subsystem.

4. The C-arm X-ray system as set forth in claim 3 , wherein the angulations are defined automatically by the system, or by user input via the user interface.

5. The C-arm X-ray system as set forth in claim 4 , wherein a size of the angulations qualifies image resolution.

6. The C-arm X-ray system as set forth in claim 1 , wherein the C-arm is mounted on a floor or a ceiling.

7. The C-arm X-ray system as set forth in claim 1 , wherein the C-arm is a mobile C-arm.

8. The C-arm X-ray system as set forth in claim 1 , wherein the c-arm further includes a collimator to reduce X-ray scatter.

9. The C-arm system as set forth in claim 1 , further comprising a workstation, wherein the work station includes the image processor and presents the user interface, and which allows the X-ray system user to perform calibrations and measurements including identifying cardiac vasculature and anomalies if present therein.

10. The C-arm system as set forth in claim 1 , wherein the X-ray image detector is a flat rectangular or flat quadratic semiconductor detector.

11. The C-arm X-ray system as set forth in claim 10 . wherein the X-ray image detector comprises a live imaging control mechanism that supports digital spot imaging.

12. The C-arm X-ray system as set forth in claim 1 , wherein the acquisition and image processors support digital subtraction angiography (DSA).

13. The C-arm X-ray system as set forth in claim 1 , further comprising a second X-ray emitter, and a second X-ray detector, wherein the first and second detectors and first and second emitters operate as a dual plane system.

14. A method for ECG-synchronized 3D rotational angiographic (3D RA) imaging a patient's cardiac anatomy using a C-arm X-ray system including a C-arm with opposing ends at which are respectively disposed an X-ray source and an X-ray receiver, the method comprising the steps of:

providing a user interface to interact with a system user to define a start angle, a stop angle, a rotation step size for C-arm rotation about the patient, and a fixed point in the patient's cardiac cycle to release X-ray radiation;

generating an ECG-gating signal at said fixed point, once in each cardiac cycle to control X-ray release periodically at each step of C-arm rotation;

periodically rotating the C-arm about the patient in rotational steps, and releasing X-ray radiation at each step synchronously with said ECG-gating signal;

acquiring a series of 2D projection images, wherein each image of the series is acquired at each step of C-arm rotation synchronously with the release of X-ray radiation with said ECG-gating signal;

processing the series of 2D projection images to reconstruct a high-resolution 3D image of the cardiac soft-tissue with minimal distortion by motion artifacts; and

presenting the high-resolution 3-D image of the cardiac soft-tissue in a display image using the user interface;

wherein said periodic synchronous release reduces the patient's accumulated X-ray radiation exposure during said 3D RA imaging.

15. The method as set forth in claim 14 , wherein the step of providing includes automatically generating the rotation step size.

16. The method as set forth in claim 14 , wherein the step of providing includes that the fixed point in the cardiac cycle correlates to the patient's R-wave, and step of generating generates the ECG-gating signal at R-wave detection.

17. The method as set forth in claim 14 , wherein the step of acquiring includes rotating the C-arm after each ECG-controlled 2D projection image acquisition, to move the C-arm to the next step in the rotation, and waiting before a next acquisition until a fixed phase of the cardiac cycle, which defines the ECG-gating signal.

18. The method as set forth in claim 14 , wherein the step of acquiring is preceded by a safety test run.

19. The method as set forth in claim 14 , wherein the processor carries out real-time subtraction imaging.

20. A computer readable storage medium in which is stored a set of computer readable instructions for use by a processor included in a C-arm X-ray system to implement the method as set forth in claim 14 .