A method for artifact correction in
computed tomography, the method comprising: (1) acquiring a plurality of data sets associated with different X-
ray energies (i.e., D1, D2, D3 . . . Dn); (2) generating a plurality of preliminary images from the different energy data sets acquired in Step (1) (i.e., II, I2, I3 . . . In); (3) using a mathematical function to operate on the preliminary images generated in Step (2) to identify the sources of the
image artifact (i.e., the artifact
source image, or ASI, where ASI=f(I1, I2, I3 . . . In)); (4) forward projecting the ASI to produce ASD=fp(ASI); (5) selecting and combining the
original data sets D1, D2, D3 . . . Dn in order to produce a new subset of the data associated with the artifact, whereby to produce the artifact reduced data, or ARD, where ARD=f(ASD, D1, D2, D3 . . . Dn); (6) generating a repaired
data set (RpD) to keep low-energy data in artifact-free data and introduce high-energy data in regions impacted by the artifact, where RpD=f(ARD, D1, D2, D3 . . . Dn); and (7) generating a final reduced artifact image (RAI) from the repaired data, RAI=bp(RpD), where the function bp is any function which generates an image from data.