A system for x-ray fluoroscopic imaging of bodily tissue in which a scintillation
screen and a charge coupled device (CCD) is used to accurately image selected tissue.
An x-ray source generates x-rays which pass through a region of a subject's body,
forming an x-ray image which reaches the scintillation screen. The scintillation
screen re-radiates a spatial intensity pattern corresponding to the image, the
pattern being detected by the CCD sensor. In a preferred embodiment the imager
uses four 88-cm three-side buttable CCDs coupled to a CsI:T1 scintillator
by straight (non-tapering) fiberoptics and tiled to achieve a field of view (FOV)
of 1616-cm at the image plane. Larger FOVs can be achieved by tiling more
CCDs in a similar manner. The imaging system can be operated in a plurality of
pixel pitch modes such as 78, 156 or 234-m pixel pitch modes. The CCD sensor
may also provide multi-resolution imaging. The image is digitized by the sensor
and processed by a controller before being stored as an electronic image. Other
preferred embodiments may include each image being directed on flat panel imagers
made from but not limited to, amorphous silicon and/or amorphous selenium to generate
individual electronic representations of the separate images used for diagnostic
or therapeutic applications.
