Cardiac cone-beam CT using a circle and line acquisition and an exact reconstruction

We analyze a trajectory consisting of a line and a circle for cardiac cone-beam CT with large area detectors. The patient's ECG is used to assemble one complete circle consisting of data from different revolutions but measured within the same heart phase. The linear part is needed to achieve a mathematically complete trajectory. Data measured within this part contribute un-gated to the image. The reconstruction algorithm used is mathematically exact and of the filtered backprojection type. Excellent image quality is shown in a simulation study for a 256 row scanner.