Design of a novel phase contrast X-ray imaging system for mammography

Abstract

X-ray phase contrast imaging is a very promising technique which may lead to significant advancements in medical imaging. One of the impediments to the clinical implementation of the technique is the general requirement to have an X-ray source of high coherence. The radiation physics group at UCL is currently developing an X-ray phase contrast imaging technique which works with laboratory X-ray sources. The design of this system requires rigorous simulation of the imaging system and the interaction of X-rays with healthy and unhealthy breast tissue. We present in this paper the results of such simulations showing the expected gain in contrast arising from the proposed system and the system's initial design.