Patent ID: 7778454
Filing Date: 2010-08-17
Classification: A61B,G01N

Abstract:
1. A method for determining the concentration of a substance in a body material that is composed of two different material components in an unknown ratio, comprising: recording two computed tomography pictures of the body material with the aid of a multi-energy computer tomograph in conjunction with two different spectral distributions of the x-radiation; reconstructing two image data records from the two computed tomography pictures, the image data records including x-ray attenuation values x; decomposing the x-ray attenuation values x for each voxel of interest of the two image data records into x-ray attenuation values of three material components of which a first and a second constitute the two different material components of the body material and a third constitutes the substance, wherein the decomposition is performed on the assumption that the x-ray attenuation value x f being a volume fraction of the first material component in the body material; and determining the concentration of the substance for each voxel of interest on the basis of the decomposition.