At CEA-LETI, a DEXA approach for systems using a digital 2D radiographic detector has been developed. It relies on an original X-rays scatter management method, based on a combined use of an analytical model and of scatter calibration data acquired through different thicknesses of Lucite slabs. Since Lucite X-rays interaction properties are equivalent to fat, the approach leads to a scatter flux map representative of a 100% fat region. However, patients’ soft tissues are composed of lean and fat. Therefore, the obtained scatter map has to be refined in order to take into account the various fat ratios that can present patients. This refinement consists in establishing a formula relating the fat ratio to the thicknesses of Low and High Energy Lucite slabs leading to same signal level. This proportion is then used to compute, on the basis of X-rays/matter interaction equations, correction factors to apply to Lucite equivalent X-rays scatter map. Influence of fat ratio correction has been evaluated, on a digital 2D bone densitometer, with phantoms composed of a PVC step (simulating bone) and different Lucite/water thicknesses as well as on patients. The results show that our X-rays scatter determination approach can take into account variations of body composition.

Date Published: 6 May 2004
PDF: 9 pages
Proc. SPIE 5368, Medical Imaging 2004: Physics of Medical Imaging, (6 May 2004); doi: 10.1117/12.532582

Published in SPIE Proceedings Vol. 5368:
Medical Imaging 2004: Physics of Medical Imaging
Martin J. Yaffe; Michael J. Flynn, Editor(s)