X-Ray Bone Densitometry

摘要

An x-ray bone densitometry apparatus having a patient table with a length extending along a Y-axis and a width extending along an X-axis and a C-arm supporting an x-ray source at one side and an x-ray detector at an opposite side of the table such that the source and detector are aligned along a source-detector axis which is transverse to the Y-axis. The source is selectively energised to emit a beam of x-rays which conforms to a beam plane which is transverse to the Y-axis and contains the source-detector axis. Either, or both, the C-arm and the table are selectively movable relative to the other to scan a selected region of a patient on the table along the Y-axis with the beam of x-rays at different angles without moving the patient. The detector measures x-rays from the beam of x-rays in each of the beam planes along the selected region of the patient at at least two different angles as x-ray measurements, each x-ray measurement including certain bone information but less than all corresponding soft tissue information between sides of the patient in the beam plane. A processor processes the x-ray measurements from the detector corresponding to the scan of the selected region to substantially cancel out the soft tissue information while retaining the bone information from the x-ray measurements to generate a three-dimensional image reconstructing bone structure without soft tissue for the selected region.