A method to estimate the fractional fat volume within a ROI of a breast biopsy for WAXS applications: Animal tissue evaluation

Abstract

The methodology to estimate ν¯fat in a ROI of a tissue sample via CCD x-ray imaging was quantitatively accurate. The WAXS fat subtraction model allowed μs of fibrous tissue to be obtained from a ROI which had some fat. The fat estimation method coupled with the WAXS models can be used to compare μs coefficients of fibroglandular and cancerous breast tissue.

Model predictions for the wide-angle x-ray scatter signals of healthy and malignant breast duct biopsies

“…A custom built energy dispersive CdTe breast biopsy x-ray diffractometer 37,42,43 will be used to measure the WAXS signatures of breast tissue and of epithelial cells over a large range of x. Signals at lower x where destructive interference occurs may yield some useful diagnostic contrast between fib and the epithelial cells.…”

“…The first ratio in square brackets represents the probability of scattering toward pixel η and the second one represents the fractional number of interactions in voxel k. The (1 − 1∕ cos θ k ) appears because scattering in voxel k was assumed to take place along its central vertical axis all with angle θ k . 42,43 The total scatter count for energy E within pixel η due to all voxels k is given by E Q -T A R G E T ; t e m p : i n t r a l i n k -; e 0 0 6 ; 3 2 6 ; 7 5 2 N s;η ðE; θÞ ¼ X k N k s;η ðE; θÞ:…”

“…Although fat could be present during a biopsy procedure, a WAXS fat subtraction protocol 42,43 can be applied to eliminate the effects of fat.…”

“…Although in previous work, 37,42,43 the symbol used for dμ s ∕dΩ was simply μ s , the new notation is more appropriate for denoting a differential linear scattering coefficient. At low x, it is F, which provides most contrast between tissue types but both types of scatter were included in this work.…”

“…42,43 The goal was to validate a protocol to compare the WAXS signals of cancerous versus fibroglandular tissue without the effects of fat since the latter is most likely to be present. The WAXS fat subtraction model was validated in Ref.…”