Beam hardening correction for computed tomography images using a postreconstruction method and equivalent tissue concept

A postreconstruction method for correcting the beam-hardening artifacts in computed tomography (CT) images is proposed. This method does not require x-ray spectrum measurement. The authors assumed that a pixel in a CT image can be decomposed into equivalent tissue percentages, depending on its CT number. A scout view of the step wedges made of these equivalent tissues was performed to obtain a beam-hardening correction curve for each tissue. Projecting through the CT image from various angles generated simulated projection data and the total thickness of each tissue along the ray. The correction term was estimated using the tissue thickness traveled by the ray, and this term was then added to its corresponding projection data. A second reconstruction using the corrected projection data yielded a beam-hardening corrected image. The preliminary results show that this method reduces beam hardening artifacts by 14% for aluminum and increased the object contrast by 18% near the aluminum-water boundary. The variation in CT numbers at different locations were reduced, and the aluminum CT number also was restored.