Second Generation CT (Pictorial Guide for Radiologic Technologists)

Second generation CT was a refinement on first generation CT but still using the same general concepts. As a Radiologic Technologist the history of earlier generations of CT can be good background for the scanners that you are using today.

chapters:
00:00 Intro
00:39 2nd Gen CT

The translate and rotate acquisition was still used but while 1st generation CT had only one x-ray source and detector, in 2nd generation CT there was a small fan beam appeared that enabled more coverage than just one detector (5-53 detectors at a time).

Second generation CT was significantly faster taking an average exam from a significant fraction of an hour to the order of minutes. An average scan during on this system was ~1.5 minutes. Each slice went from taking 5 minutes on 1st generation to as low as 20 seconds on 2nd generation.

Second generation CT is still a translate rotate acquisition but was significantly faster than 1st generation CT. Multiple versions of second generation CT were built where more detectors used at once lead to more speedup.