Contrast Detail Phantoms for X-ray Phase-Contrast Mammography and Tomography
Primary goal of this study is to investigate the visibility of low-contrast details of different size on images obtained at conventional mammography unit, and at a monochromatic synchrotron radiation source, in absorption based and phase contrast imaging
- PDF / 1,289,532 Bytes
- 7 Pages / 439.37 x 666.14 pts Page_size
- 47 Downloads / 186 Views
)
1
2
Laboratory of Computer Simulations in Medicine, Technical University of Varna, Varna, Bulgaria {kristina.bliznakova,buliev}@tu-varna.bg Department of Physics “Ettore Pancini”, University of Napoli and INFN Napoli, Naples, Italy {mettivier,russo}@na.infn.it
Abstract. Primary goal of this study is to investigate the visibility of lowcontrast details of different size on images obtained at conventional mammog‐ raphy unit, and at a monochromatic synchrotron radiation source, in absorption based and phase contrast imaging setups. For this purpose, three physical phan‐ toms made of paraffin as a bulk material were used. They embedded various low contrast features. Single projection images were acquired with the GE Senographe mammography unit and at the beamline ID17, ESRF, Grenoble. Comparison of images showed that images obtained in a phase contrast mode have more visible details than the images acquired either in absorption mode at the synchrotron or at the conventional x-ray mammography unit. Analysis for δ and μ suggests that paraffin may be a suitable material for the manufacturing of tissue-mimicking phantoms dedicated to phase contrast applications. Results will be exploited in the development of a dedicated phantom for phase contrast imaging. Keywords: Phase contrast · Breast phantoms · Phantom materials
1
Introduction
Phase-contrast (PhC) mammography and tomography are emerging alternative approaches to the absorption based mammography, digital breast tomosynthesis and breast computed tomography. Indeed, x-ray PhC imaging is a technique that is based not only on x-ray attenuation but also on the x-ray phase change related to diffraction and refraction effects during x-ray propagation in the tissue. The advancement in the development and the clinical implementation of this imaging technique is related to the development of new physical phantoms which correctly reflect the phase change char‐ acteristics of real breast tissues. Nowadays, physical phantoms dedicated for testing the performance of x-ray breast imaging techniques are mostly suitable for absorption imaging. These physical phan‐ toms reflect the photon absorbing and scattering properties of the various breast tissues, rather than their phase contrast properties. The analysis of tissue simulating materials used for breast imaging showed that the commonly used PMMA substitute exhibited δ greater than the fibroglandular tissue by ~12 % [1]. Although several materials exhibited © Springer International Publishing Switzerland 2016 A. Tingberg et al. (Eds.): IWDM 2016, LNCS 9699, pp. 611–617, 2016. DOI: 10.1007/978-3-319-41546-8_76
612
K. Bliznakova et al.
δ between that of adipose and fibroglandular tissue, there was an energy mismatch in terms of equivalent fibroglandular weight fraction between δ and μ for these materials. These results as well as the lack of up-to-date proper physical phantoms, cause the investigators to use tissue breast samples with and without breast cancers. The aim of this investigation is related to the design and fabrication of
Data Loading...
