Applications Of X-ray Phase Contrast Imaging Research Articles

Medical and Industrial Applications of X-ray Phase-contrast Imaging Using Synchrotron Radiation

BL-14 at the Photon Factory, Japan is a characteristic synchrotron radiation beamline where one can use a vertically polarized synchrotron radiation beam from a superconducting vertical wiggler with a field strength of 5 Tesla. One of the experimental stations, BL-14C, is dedicated to x-ray imaging such as x-ray phase-contrast CT using a large x-ray interferometer, x-ray diffraction enhanced imaging (DEI), DEI-CT and x-ray dark field imaging (DFI). The phase-contrast CT using an x-ray interferometer is sufficiently sensitive to evaluate small density differences in soft tissues and soft materials. Recent results on medical and industrial applications of phase-contrast CT using the large x-ray interferometer are reported by five papers in this special issue.

A new method to retrieve phase information for equiangular fan beam differential phase contrast computed tomography

Sample radiation damage is one of the main drawbacks limiting applications of the x-ray phase-contrast imaging method. Recently, for x-ray grating-based phase contrast imaging, the reverse projection (RP) method has been proposed by Zhu et al. [Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. U.S.A. 107, 13576-13581 (2010)]. Compared to the conventional phase stepping technique, the RP method allows a strong reduction of the exposure time and minimization of the errors induced by mechanical vibrations. However, so far, it has only been considered for parallel beam illumination, typical of a synchrotron radiation source. In this paper, a generalization of the RP method from parallel beam geometry to fan beam geometry was presented and discussed. Within parallel beam geometry, the RP method utilizes the conjugate characteristic between reverse projection images. Nevertheless, this characteristic is not directly satisfied for fan beam geometry. In this study, a phantom composed of known materials was constructed and the projection images of the phantom were calculated in a fan beam geometry. By considering single ray, the conjugate images of the projection images were derived from the projection dataset. After that, using the modified RP method the authors retrieved phase and absorption information from paired images. Extracted phase and absorption information of the phantom were in good agreement with theoretical values. Additionally, the slice reconstruction was performed and the results turned out to be in the authors' expectation. Theoretical calculations and numerical simulations confirm both feasibility and validity of the RP method under fan beam illumination. Because this method is simple, fast, and releases a relatively low dose, the authors believe that this research is very useful for the x-ray phase contrast imaging applications in clinical diagnosis, bioresearch, and industrial nondestructive testing.

Single shot phase contrast imaging using laser-produced Betatron x-ray beams

Development of x-ray phase contrast imaging applications with a laboratory scale source have been limited by the long exposure time needed to obtain one image. We demonstrate, using the Betatron x-ray radiation produced when electrons are accelerated and wiggled in the laser-wakefield cavity, that a high-quality phase contrast image of a complex object (here, a bee), located in air, can be obtained with a single laser shot. The Betatron x-ray source used in this proof of principle experiment has a source diameter of 1.7 μm and produces a synchrotron spectrum with critical energy E(c)=12.3±2.5 keV and 10⁹ photons per shot in the whole spectrum.

A preliminary investigation of the potential of phase contrast x-ray imaging in the field of homeland security

A novel technique based on coded apertures which makes x-ray phase contrast imaging (XPCi) feasible with conventional sources has been recently developed at University College London. This technique is expected to enable for the first time real-world applications of XPCi in fields as diverse as medical, biological and scientific imaging, industrial inspections and security scans.This paper focuses on XPCi applications in homeland security. A simulation of coded-aperture XPCi, which was experimentally validated in a previous work, has been used to produce images of potential threat objects, and to quantitatively assess detail visibility improvements in terms of contrast and signal-to-noise ratio over conventional techniques based on absorption.Free-space propagation phase contrast images taken with synchrotron radiation (SR) are also presented. Although not directly related to the coded-aperture technique used in the simulation, these can be considered indicative of the image quality that would be made available through coded-aperture XPCi with conventional sources: previous studies have demonstrated that this technique provides image enhancements compatible with those obtained with free-space propagation phase contrast with SR. Substantial enhancements in image quality and improvement in detail detectability in cluttered environments are demonstrated in this way. The results presented in this study and the software used to generate them will provide the basis for the design and realization of a dedicated imaging prototype.