Scatter and beam hardening correction in computed tomography applications

An imaging system for correcting scatter in an image of an object, said imaging system comprising:

• at least one radiation source adapted to expose the object to a plurality of x-rays;
• a detector arrangement disposed with respect to said radiation source to receive x-rays passing from said radiation source through the object;
• and
• a computer system coupled to said detector arrangement and configured to:
• acquire a plurality of projection data from said detector arrangement and generate a 3D image from the projection data;
• generate a voxellized representation of the 3D image of the object;
• calculate a single scatter profile for the object using the voxellized representation of the 3D image of the object;
• determine the total scatter profile for the object using the single scatter profile and an adjustment factor;
• and
• correct at least one of the projection data and 3D image using the total scatter profile to obtain, respectively, at least one of a scatter corrected projection data and a scatter corrected 3D image.

A method of correcting scatter comprising:

• obtaining a voxellized representation of a 3D image of an object from a plurality of projection data;
• calculating a single scatter profile for the object using the voxellized representation of the 3D image of the object;
• representing a total scatter profile for the object as a sum of the single scatter profile and a multiple scatter profile, wherein the multiple scatter profile is obtained by multiplying the single scatter profile by an adjustment factor;
• and
• correcting the projection data using the total scatter profile to obtain a scatter corrected projection data of the object.