Bi-Directional X-Ray Phase-Contrast Mammography |
| |
| Authors: | Kai Scherer Lorenz Birnbacher Michael Chabior Julia Herzen Doris Mayr Susanne Grandl Anikó Sztrókay-Gaul Karin Hellerhoff Fabian Bamberg Franz Pfeiffer |
| |
| Affiliation: | 1. Lehrstuhl für Biomedizinische Physik, Physik-Department & Institut für Medizintechnik, Technische Universität München, Garching, Germany.; 2. Centre for Materials and Coastal Research, Helmholtz-Zentrum Geesthacht, Geesthacht, Germany.; 3. Department of Pathology, Ludwig Maximilian University, Munich, Germany.; 4. Department of Clinical Radiology, Ludwig Maximilian University, Munich, Germany.; Wayne State University, United States of America, |
| |
| Abstract: | Phase-contrast x-ray imaging is a promising improvement of conventional absorption-based mammography for early tumor detection. This potential has been demonstrated recently, utilizing structured gratings to obtain differential phase and dark-field scattering images. However, the inherently anisotropic imaging sensitivity of the proposed mono-directional approach yields only insufficient diagnostic information, and has low diagnostic sensitivity to highly oriented structures. To overcome these limitations, we present a two-directional x-ray phase-contrast mammography approach and demonstrate its advantages by applying it to a freshly dissected, cancerous mastectomy breast specimen. We illustrate that the two-directional scanning procedure overcomes the insufficient diagnostic value of a single scan, and reliably detects tumor structures, independently from their orientation within the breast. Our results indicate the indispensable diagnostic necessity and benefit of a multi-directional approach for x-ray phase-contrast mammography. |
| |
| Keywords: | |
|
|
