Abstract
Results are presented of a feasibility study of three-dimensional X-ray tomographic mammography utilising in-line phase contrast. Experiments were performed at SYRMEP beamline of Elettra synchrotron. A specially designed plastic phantom and a mastectomy sample containing a malignant lesion were used to study the reconstructed image quality as a function of different image processing operations. Detailed evaluation and optimization of image reconstruction workflows have been carried out using combinations of several advanced computed tomography algorithms with different pre-processing and post-processing steps. Special attention was paid to the effect of phase retrieval on the diagnostic value of the reconstructed images. A number of objective image quality indices have been applied for quantitative evaluation of the results, and these were compared with subjective assessments of the same images by three experienced radiologists and one pathologist. The outcomes of this study provide practical guidelines for the optimization of image processing workflows in synchrotron-based phase-contrast mammo-tomography.
Highlights
Breast cancer is one of the two leading causes of cancer fatalities among women in most industrialised countries [1, 2]
The results presented here refer to a study performed at the SYnchrotron Radiation for MEdical Physics (SYRMEP) beamline of the ELETTRA synchrotron light source (Basovizza - Trieste, Italy), which is so far the only synchrotron beamline where trials on human patients have been already conducted in 2D projection mammography mode [17,18,19]
The computed indexes suggest that the global quality of the images reconstructed with iterative algorithms is significantly higher than the one obtained with Filtered Back Projection (FBP)
Summary
Breast cancer is one of the two leading causes of cancer fatalities among women in most industrialised countries [1, 2]. The other major limitation is related to the minimal difference in X-ray attenuation between normal breast tissues, and between normal and abnormal breast tissues that implies low sensitivity imaging. The intrinsic limitation of standard radiology due to the small differences in X-ray attenuation between the tissues composing the breast (mainly the glandular and tumor tissue) remains unsolved. This has pushed the scientific research towards the development of new imaging modalities for breast cancer diagnosis. Among the PhC techniques [15], propagation-based imaging (PBI) is attractive as its implementation requires that the detector is moved a certain distance from the sample under study, without the need for any additional experimental hardware
Sign-in/Register to view highlights & summary Sign-in/Register to access full text options 
Talk to us
Join us for a 30 min session where you can share your feedback and ask us any queries you have
Schedule a callDisclaimer: All third-party content on this website/platform is and will remain the property of their respective owners and is provided on "as is" basis without any warranties, express or implied. Use of third-party content does not indicate any affiliation, sponsorship with or endorsement by them. Any references to third-party content is to identify the corresponding services and shall be considered fair use under The CopyrightLaw.
