Patent ID: 8503755

Claim:
Method to determine an estimated value of a radiation attenuation coefficient μ j of a voxel j that is associated with a segment of a tissue, wherein the attenuation coefficient μ indicates an attenuation rate of radiation in the tissue, the radiation being emitted with an energy by an emitter and is detected by a detector, the method comprising: in a computerized processor, automatically obtaining an estimate of the noise value Δ{tilde over (μ)} of the voxel attenuation coefficients μ, from a thickness and density of the tissue and information about the emitted radiation; in said processor, automatically estimating an average attenuation coefficient μ , based on a tissue density estimation and the energy of the radiation emitted by the emitter; in said processor, automatically calculating parameters of a prior function U(μ) from the estimated noise value Δ{tilde over (μ)} and the average attenuation coefficient μ ; and in said processor, iteratively calculating the estimated value of the radiation attenuation coefficient μ j of a voxel from projection data acquired by the detector, from the estimated noise value from Δ{tilde over (μ)}, the average attenuation coefficient μ and from the prior function U(μ), and making said estimated value of the radiation attenuation coefficient μ j of a voxel available in electronic form at an output of the processor.