Slit collimator scatter correction

A technique is presented for establishing a patient's BMD using a dual-energy X-ray imaging system. In the technique, the dual-energy X-ray imaging system utilizes a slit collimator to expose a series of portions of a region of interest within a patient with X-rays of two different energies. A flat-panel digital X-ray detector detects the X-rays passing through the patient's region of interest and produces data representative of the intensity of the X-rays reaching the detector. The image intensity data is corrected for scatter based on identifying the regions of the image intensity data that are produced from scatter only, and not primary X-rays. A first-order derivative of the image intensity data is used to identify these regions. A value for the intensity of the scatter at the boundary of the scatter-only region is established. The value for the intensity of the scatter at the boundary of the scatter-only region is used to estimate scatter intensity in the region of the image intensity data that is produced from primary X-rays, as well as scatter. To correct the image intensity data for scatter, the known and estimated scatter intensities are subtracted from the image intensity data.