A Proposed Dynamic Cardiac 3-D Densitometer for Early Detection and Evaluation of Heart Disease

An inexpensive, high-speed multiple section computed-tomographic X-ray transmission scanner has been designed. This scanner utilizes a novel multipleanode, scanning-electron-beam, X-ray source to obtain scan times of 50 msec for two adjacent tomographic sections. Up to 8 sections may be scanned in sequence in 200 msec. A conventional stationary detector array and data processing system is used. Dynamic scanning at a rate of 1/sec for 20 seconds (up to 160 images) in combination with intravenous contrast media injections will be used to determine regional myocardial perfusion and to quantify the volume of ischemic and infarcted tissue. Image quality comparable to conventional body scanners is expected.