Empirical beam hardening correction in the measurement of vertebral bone mineral content by computed tomography.

Abstract

Computed tomography (CT) was performed on human vertebral phantoms to evaluate beam hardening effect in the CT measurement of vertebral bone mineral content. CT number of bone-simulating solutions was in linear relationship with the logarithm of exp(-.zeta.2l) .times. 107 [where exp is exponential, .zeta. is physical density and l is X-ray path length]. This exponential is a good estimate of the beam hardening effect in a vertebral study.