Attenuation coefficients of body tissues using principal-components analysis

Principal-components analysis is used to obtain a set of parameters for dual-energy radiography that completely describes the attenuation coefficient of any tissue over a given energy range. These parameters are the weighted averages of the densities of the elements present in a substance. Principal-components (PC) parameters are calculated for several soft tissues from measured attenuation coefficients published by Phelps et al. The calculated PC parameters are compared to the more conventional dual-energy representations of the attenuation coefficient: (1) the electron density/effective atomic number (or Compton/photoelectric) representation and (2) the equivalent water/equivalent aluminum thickness representation. The principal-components parameters represent the attenuation coefficients more accurately, and are more stable than the currently used parameters. In addition, these new parameters are sensitive to differences in the chemical composition and density, whereas the previous representations are primarily sensitive to changes in the density. It is concluded that the principal-components method provides a more sensitive and accurate indicator of changes in tissue composition than previous characterizations of the linear attenuation coefficient. The principal-components method provides a means for improving the accuracy of the characterization of tissues in dual-energy computed tomographic imaging and in dual-energy digital radiography.