Method for operating an X-ray device, X-ray device, computer program and electronically readable storage medium

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-10660581-B2
Application number	US-201916519129-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Jul 23, 2019
Priority date	Jul 25, 2018
Publication date	May 26, 2020
Grant date	May 26, 2020

Abstract

A method is for operating an X-ray device. In an embodiment, the method includes acquiring a sequence of images of a patient; moving an acquisition arrangement including at least one X-ray tube assembly, during the acquiring of the sequence of images, along the patient in a scanning direction; evaluating at least two different images, showing at least one common feature of the patient, to determine depth information for the at least one common feature; and actuating a collimator aperture of a collimator of the X-ray tube assembly, as a function of position information describing a position of the acquisition arrangement in the scanning direction, to change an aperture angle of a radiation field generated by the X-ray tube assembly in the scanning direction.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. A method for operating an X-ray device, the method comprising:
acquiring a sequence of images of a patient;
moving an acquisition arrangement including at least one X-ray tube assembly, during the acquiring of the sequence of images, along the patient in a scanning direction;
wherein individual images of the sequence of images are acquired at different positions in the acquisition arrangement and each represent a different segment of the patient;
evaluating at least two different images, showing at least one common feature of the patient, to determine depth information for the at least one common feature; and
actuating a collimator aperture of a collimator of the X-ray tube assembly, as a function of position information describing a position of the acquisition arrangement in the scanning direction, to change an aperture angle of a radiation field generated by the X-ray tube assembly in the scanning direction.

2. The method of claim 1 , wherein the position information describes an anatomical position describing a current positioning of the acquisition arrangement in relation to the patient.

3. The method of claim 2 , wherein the anatomical position is determined from at least one of
image data acquired via an optical camera of the X-ray device, and
at least one already acquired image of the sequence of images.

4. The method of claim 2 , wherein the anatomical position is determined from a spatial position describing a current distance of the acquisition arrangement from a start point or an end point of the moving of the acquisition arrangement.

5. The method of claim 4 , wherein different anatomical positions are assigned to different spatial positions via at least one of
a received user input into a computing device of the X-ray device; and
a manual moving of the acquisition arrangement into a spatial position corresponding to an anatomical position.

6. The method of claim 1 , wherein an anatomical landmark is determined from at least one image of the sequence of images, and wherein at least one item of depth information is determined for the anatomical landmark.

7. The method of claim 1 , wherein the collimator aperture is assigned to an anatomical position as a function of assignment information stored in a computing device of the X-ray device.

8. The method of claim 1 , wherein the collimator aperture of the collimator of the X-ray tube assembly is actuated orthogonally to the scanning direction as a function of the position information to change an aperture angle of the radiation field generated by the X-ray tube assembly.

9. The method of claim 1 , wherein at least one further acquisition parameter of the X-ray device is varied in addition to the collimator aperture of the collimator of the X-ray tube assembly.

10. The method of claim 1 , wherein an acquisition arrangement is used including at least one X-ray detector disposed opposite the at least one X-ray tube assembly, and wherein at least one further acquisition parameter of the at least one X-ray detector is set as a function of the position information.

11. The method of claim 10 , wherein at least one of a collimator aperture of a collimator of the X-ray detector, a detector entrance dose, an X-ray focus-detector distance, and an angle formed by a central ray of the radiation field and a detector normal of the X-ray detector is varied as the at least one further acquisition parameter of the X-ray detector.

12. The method of claim 1 , wherein a synthetic radiographic image, supplemented by at least one item of depth information of a relevant anatomical region as supplementary information, is generated from the sequence of images.

13. An X-ray device, comprising:
an acquisition arrangement, including at least one X-ray tube assembly including a collimator; and
a computing device, configured to
acquire a sequence of images of a patient;
move an acquisition arrangement including at least one X-ray tube assembly, during acquisition of the sequence of images, along the patient in a scanning direction;

wherein individual images of the sequence of images are acquired at different positions in the acquisition arrangement and each represent a different segment of the patient;
evaluate at least two different images, showing at least one common feature of the patient, to determine depth information for the at least one common feature; and
actuate a collimator aperture of a collimator of the X-ray tube assembly, as a function of position information describing a position of the acquisition arrangement in the scanning direction, to change an aperture angle of a radiation field generated by the X-ray tube assembly in the scanning direction.

14. A non-transitory electronically readable storage medium comprising instructions which, when executed by a computing device of an X-ray device, cause the computing device to carry out the method of claim 1 .

15. The method of claim 3 , wherein the anatomical position is determined from a spatial position describing a current distance of the acquisition arrangement from a start point or an end point of the moving of the acquisition arrangement.

16. The method of claim 15 , wherein different anatomical positions are assigned to different spatial positions via at least one of
a received user input into a computing device of the X-ray device; and
a manual moving of the acquisition arrangement into a spatial position corresponding to an anatomical position.

17. The method of claim 2 , wherein the collimator aperture of the collimator of the X-ray tube assembly is actuated orthogonally to the scanning direction as a function of the position information to change an aperture angle of the radiation field generated by the X-ray tube assembly.

18. The method of claim 9 , wherein at least one of a scanning speed of the acquisition arrangement, a tube current-time product of the X-ray tube assembly, an electrical voltage of the X-ray tube assembly and an X-ray focus-patient distance of the X-ray tube assembly is used the at least one further acquisition parameter.

19. The method of claim 12 , a 3D tomosynthesis dataset is generated from the sequence of images.

20. The X-ray device of claim 13 , wherein an acquisition arrangement is used including at least one X-ray detector disposed opposite the at least one X-ray tube assembly, and wherein at least one further acquisition parameter of the at least one X-ray detector is set as a function of the position information.

21. The X-ray device of claim 20 , wherein at least one of a collimator aperture of a collimator of the X-ray detector, a detector entrance dose, an X-ray focus-detector distance, and an angle formed by a central ray of the radiation field and a detector normal of the X-ray detector is varied as the at least one further acquisition parameter of the X-ray detector.

Assignees

• Siemens Healthcare Gmbh

Inventors

• Fieselmann Andreas
• Ritschl Ludwig
• Wicklein Julia
• Herbst Magdalena
• Luckner Christoph

Classifications

• A61B6/5241

  combining overlapping images of the same imaging modality, e.g. by stitching · CPC title

• A61B6/542

  involving control of exposure · CPC title

• A61B6/4452

  the source unit and the detector unit being able to move relative to each other · CPC title

• A61B6/466

  adapted to display 3D data · CPC title

• A61B6/06

  Diaphragms · CPC title