Determination of electron density, mass density and calcium fraction by mass of soft and osseous tissues by dual energy CT.

Techniques of CT analysis of trabecular regions are concerned with bone mineral assessment, with considerable attention being paid to the effect of unknown fat content. Information concerning mass density and electron density might provide a more complete picture but is not normally obtained. A method for the calculation of mass and electron density, as well as the fraction of calcium by mass, is described and requires only a measurement of effective beam energy on the skin in addition to the CT numbers from a dual energy scan. The method uses the six major elements, H, C, N, O, P and Ca as compartments for the analysis and can also be applied to soft tissue by using only the first four. The calculated mass fraction of Ca is found to be sensitive to fat content and difference between surface and internal energies which can lead to serious underestimates below a fraction of about 0.04. Mass and electron density results are independent of fat content and only marginally affected by energy differences. Results were obtained with simple materials confirming mass density can be calculated to the order of 3% and electron density to considerably better than 1%.