A fast and efficient method for sequential cone-beam tomography

Sequential cone-beam tomography is a method that uses data of two or more p arallel circular trajectories of a cone-beam scanner to reconstruct the obj ect function. We propose a condition for the data acquisition that ensures that all object points between two successive circles are irradiated over a n angular span of the x-ray source position of exactly 360 degrees in total as seen along the rotation axis. A fast and efficient approximative recons truction method for the proposed acquisition is presented which uses data f rom exactly 360 degrees for every object point. It is based on the Tent-FDK method which was recently developed for single circular cone-beam CT. The measurement geometry does not provide sufficient data for exact reconstruct ion but it is shown that the proposed reconstruction method provides satisf ying image quality for small cone angles. (C) 2001 American Association of Physicists in Medicine.