A CT imaging system includes a rotatable gantry having an opening to receive an object to be scanned having a small field-of-view (FOV) inside a large FOV. A plurality of area sources is attached to the rotatable gantry, each area source includes a plurality of x-ray emission sources, wherein the plurality of area sources are configured to emit x-rays toward the object. A plurality of x-ray detector arrays is attached to the gantry and positioned such that at least a first detector array and a second detector array each receive x-rays that pass through at least the entire small FOV of the object.