This different design was explicitly developed to better image heart structures that never stop moving, performing a complete cycle of movement with each heartbeat.

The major medical application for which this design technology was invented in the 1980s was for imaging the human heart, specifically to detect coronary calcium.

[4] For reference, current coronary artery angiography imaging is usually performed at 30 frames/second or 0.033 seconds/frame; EBT is far closer to this than mechanically swept CT machines.

[6] The electron current sweep is aimed using wound copper coil magnetic deflection yokes, as in a cathode-ray tube (CRT).

However, the entire structure of the cathode, deflection yokes, anode and overall vacuum tube size is much larger, therefore made out of steel, not glass, with the main central open midsection of the vacuum tube hollow, leaving room for the scan table and object or person to lie while the scan is performed.