Comparison of phase contrast CT images for different tumor tissues

Abstract

In this paper, the samples of different tumor tissue are imaged by phase contrast CT method based on synchrotron radiation in vitro. Then the imaging results are reconstructed in three-dimensional limit, and the 3D images for different tissues are compared. The experiments were performed at X-ray imaging and biomedical application beam-line (BL13W1) of Shanghai Synchrotron Radiation Facility (SSRF). The results show that lung cancer tissue has best imaging quality in the phase contrast imaging experiments. By the filter back projection (FBP), the tomography images are obtained successfully. The large alveoli of lung cancer tissue are reconstructed by the surface rendering method. The reconstructed images can not only display the internal structures of lung cancer tissues, but also show lung cancer cells eroded. Therefore, the phase contrast CT (PCI-CT) imaging based on synchrotron radiation can be used to observe the details of tumor tissue. The phase contrast CT effect of tumor tissues is more significant than that of medical X-ray imaging. The ability of PCI-CT image is much better in distinguishing the microstructures of tumor tissues. For high density tissues such as stomach cancer tissue and breast tumor tissue, there is high absorption to X-ray and their absorption contrast is relatively remarkable. Their contrast is similar to that of hard tissues (such as bone). For soft tissues or low density tissues such as lung cancer tissue and breast cancer tissue, their contrast is basically coincident, but the phase contrast of high density tissues is slightly low, and the cavity of breast cancer tissue can be showed in 3D image.