X-Ray Imaging Apparatus and Method

The present invention relates to an X-ray imaging apparatus and a corresponding X-ray imaging method, in particular for X-ray fluoroscopy and for an application where a characteristic feature shall be extracted from acquired X-ray images. In order to reduce the total X-ray dose to which a patient is exposed for acquiring a series of X-ray images and, nevertheless, to allow the extraction of small characteristic features with high certainty, an X-ray imaging apparatus is proposed comprising: an imaging unit comprising an X-ray source ( 2 ) and an X-ray detector ( 4 ) for forming a series of X-ray images of an object (P) including a characteristic feature, a feature extraction unit ( 6 ) for extracting said characteristic feature from said series of X-ray images, and a control unit ( 7 ) for controlling the X-ray dose to which the object (P) is exposed for forming said series of X-ray images by controlling said X-ray source ( 2 ) such that the X-ray dose per X-ray image is larger for a first number of images than for the remaining number of images of said series.