ABSTRACT
Computed tomography (CT) is a volumetric measurement technique widely used to study mineralized tissue, mostly in the clinical environment. Biomineralization can be studied with CT at many different size scales ranging from clinical to nanoscopic, and the instrumentation varies accordingly. This chapter outlines interactions of the x-ray beam with specimens. One CT reconstruction algorithm is called the algebraic reconstruction technique (ART) and is based on a model of CT problem consisting of a system of linear equations. Intuitively, it is easy to understand CT principles from the ART point of view. ART is computation intensive, but there are other tomographic reconstruction algorithms that require less computer resources. In the case of materials like bone and soft tissues, absorption contrast allows excellent visualization of the bone constituent. Changes in bone density, geometry, and biomechanical properties of the proximal femur can be followed longitudinally with clinical CT.
