title: A fast experimental beam hardening correction method for accurate bone mineral measurements in 3D μCT imaging system.
abstract: Bone mineral density plays an important role in the determination of bone strength and fracture risks. Consequently, it is very important to obtain accurate bone mineral density measurements. The microcomputerized tomography system provides 3D information about the architectural properties of bone. Quantitative analysis accuracy is decreased by the presence of artefacts in the reconstructed images, mainly due to beam hardening artefacts (such as cupping artefacts). In this paper, we introduced a new beam hardening correction method based on a postreconstruction technique performed with the use of off-line water and bone linearization curves experimentally calculated aiming to take into account the nonhomogeneity in the scanned animal. In order to evaluate the mass correction rate, calibration line has been carried out to convert the reconstructed linear attenuation coefficient into bone masses. The presented correction method was then applied on a multimaterial cylindrical phantom and on mouse skeleton images. Mass correction rate up to 18% between uncorrected and corrected images were obtained as well as a remarkable improvement of a calculated mouse femur mass has been noticed. Results were also compared to those obtained when using the simple water linearization technique which does not take into account the nonhomogeneity in the object.
authors.affiliation: Université de Strasbourg, IPHC, Strasbourg, France.|CNRS, UMR7178, Strasbourg, France.
authors.forename: Khodor
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Koubar
authors.affiliation: Université de Strasbourg, IPHC, Strasbourg, France.|CNRS, UMR7178, Strasbourg, France.
authors.forename: Virgile
authors.initials: V
authors.lastname: Bekaert
authors.affiliation: Université de Strasbourg, IPHC, Strasbourg, France.|CNRS, UMR7178, Strasbourg, France.
authors.forename: David
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Brasse
authors.affiliation: Université de Strasbourg, IPHC, Strasbourg, France.|CNRS, UMR7178, Strasbourg, France.
authors.forename: Patrice
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Laquerriere
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D016477:Artifacts; D015519:Bone Density; D002138:Calibration; D007091:Image Processing, Computer-Assisted; D021621:Imaging, Three-Dimensional / Q000295:instrumentation / Q000379:methods; D051379:Mice; D019047:Phantoms, Imaging; D014057:Tomography, X-Ray Computed
keywords: Artefacts; beam hardening correction; bone mass measurements; preclinical micro-CT