Fsl. Wong et Jc. Elliott, THEORETICAL EXPLANATION OF THE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN BACKSCATTERED ELECTRON AND X-RAY LINEAR ATTENUATION COEFFICIENTS IN CALCIFIED TISSUES, Scanning, 19(8), 1997, pp. 541-546
X-ray absorption and backscattered electron (BSE) microscopies are two
commonly used techniques for estimating mineral contents in calcified
tissues. The resolution in BSE images is usually higher than in x-ray
images, but due to the previous lack of good standards to quantify th
e grey levels in BSE images of bones and teeth, x-ray microtomography
(XMT) images of the same specimens have been used for calibration. How
ever, the physics of these two techniques is different: for a specimen
with a given composition, the xray linear attenuation coefficient is
proportional to density, but there is no such relation with the BSE co
efficient. To understand the reason that this calibration appears to b
e valid, the behaviour of simulated bone samples was investigated. In
this, the bone samples were modelled as having three phases: hydroxyap
atite (Ca-10(PO4)(6)(OH)(2)), protein, and void (either empty or compl
etely filled with polymethylmethacrylate (PMMA), a resin which is usua
lly used for embedding bones and teeth in microscopic studies). The x-
ray linear attenuation coefficients (calculated using published data)
and the BSE coefficients (calculated using Monte Carlo simulation) wer
e compared for samples of various phase proportions. It was found that
the BSE coefficient correlated only with the x-ray attenuation coeffi
cient for samples with PMMA infiltration. This was attributed to the p
roperties of PMMA (density and mean atomic number) being very similar
to those of the protein; therefore, the sample behaves like a two-phas
e system which allows the establishment of a monotonic relation betwee
n density and BSE coefficient. With the newly developed standards (bro
minated and iodinated dimethacrylate esters) for BSE microscopy of bon
e, grey levels can be converted to absolute BSE coefficients by linear
interpolation, from which equivalent densities can be determined.