Correlation of Effective Atomic Number and Electron Density with Attenuation Coefficients Measured with Polychromatic X Rays

Attenuation coefficients of nine different plastics and water were measured with EMI computed transaxial tomography (CT) and radioisotopic sources with photons of 14 to 136 keV. The EMI values were correlated with physical density, electron density, and atomic number cubed (Z3). The best correlation was obtained with electron density, the exception being the value for water. This descrepancy was explained on the basis of X-dependent photoelectric absorption with verification from monoenergetic measurements.