In vivo analysis of single, pre- and postprocessing quantitative CT techniques.

Measurements of bone mineral using single and dual-energy quantitative computed tomography (CT) are examined in vivo in 108 vertebral bodies scanned on a Siemens DRH scanner. Pre and postprocessing dual-energy techniques are compared. In the range of clinically useful kilovoltage, the choice of beam energy does not make a significant difference to the single-energy bone mineral measurement. Postprocessing dual-energy measurement in vivo shows a statistically significant decrease in the amount of mineral measured compared to single-energy measurements, whereas the preprocessing measurement shows a significant increase.