Method and apparatus for determining the concentration of a substance in a body material by means of multi-energy computed tomography

• Main Authors: GRASRUCK MICHAEL, KRAUSS BERNHARD
• Format: Patent
• Language: English
• Published: 20.09.2007
• Subjects: DIAGNOSIS; HUMAN NECESSITIES; HYGIENE; IDENTIFICATION; INVESTIGATING OR ANALYSING MATERIALS BY DETERMINING THEIRCHEMICAL OR PHYSICAL PROPERTIES; MEASURING; MEDICAL OR VETERINARY SCIENCE; PHYSICS; SURGERY; TESTING

At least one embodiment of the present application relates to a method and/or an apparatus for determining the concentration of a substance in a body material that is composed of two different material components in an unknown ratio. In an embodiment of the method, two computed tomography pictures from which two image data records are reconstructed are recorded in conjunction with two different spectral distributions of the x-radiation. The x-ray attenuation values for each voxel of the two image data records are decomposed into three material components. The decomposition is performed on the assumption that the x-ray attenuation value xM of the body material without the substance is composed of the x-ray attenuation values xM1, xM2 of the first and second material component in accordance with the following equation: xM=f*xM1+(1-f)*XM2, f being a volume fraction of the first material component in the body material. The concentration of the substance is then determined for each voxel of interest on the basis of the decomposition. The concentration can be determined reliably in a simple way with the aid of an embodiment of the present method and/or an embodiment of the associated apparatus.