Large field-of-view tiled grating structures for X-ray phase-contrast imaging

Schröter, Tobias J.; Koch, Frieder; Meyer, Pascal; Kunka, N.; Meiser, Jan; Willer, Konstantin; Gromann, Lukas B.; Marco, F. De; Herzen, Julia; Noël, Peter B.; Yaroshenko, Andre; Hofmann, Andreas; Pfeiffer, Franz; Mohr, Jürgen

doi:10.1063/1.4973632

Cited by 44 publications

(37 citation statements)

References 26 publications

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“…The grating structures were manufactured utilizing X-ray lithography processes [ 24 ] (KIT and microworks GmbH, Karlsruhe, Germany). In order to obtain oblong grating arrays for G 1 and G 2 an approach as described in [ 25 ] was utilized. Hereby, eight individual grating tiles (2.5 x 5 cm 2 ) for each plane were stitched together under microscope observation.…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

X-ray dark-field imaging of the human lung—A feasibility study on a deceased body

et al. 2018

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Disorders of the lungs such as chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) are a major cause of chronic morbidity and mortality and the third leading cause of death in the world. The absence of sensitive diagnostic tests for early disease stages of COPD results in under-diagnosis of this treatable disease in an estimated 60–85% of the patients. In recent years a grating-based approach to X-ray dark-field contrast imaging has shown to be very sensitive for the detection and quantification of pulmonary emphysema in small animal models. However, translation of this technique to imaging systems suitable for humans remains challenging and has not yet been reported. In this manuscript, we present the first X-ray dark-field images of in-situ human lungs in a deceased body, demonstrating the feasibility of X-ray dark-field chest radiography on a human scale. Results were correlated with findings of computed tomography imaging and autopsy. The performance of the experimental radiography setup allows acquisition of multi-contrast chest X-ray images within clinical boundary conditions, including radiation dose. Upcoming clinical studies will have to demonstrate that this technology has the potential to improve early diagnosis of COPD and pulmonary diseases in general.

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Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

X-ray dark-field imaging of the human lung—A feasibility study on a deceased body

et al. 2018

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“…In fact, the additional restriction due to shadowing further limits the size of the field of view to 17 mm × 46 mm, which is too small for most clinical applications. However, shadowing can be corrected by bending of the gratings 66 , 67 and recently the advance towards larger grating sizes has been reported by stitching of smaller gratings 31 , 32 . Both, bent gratings and the usage of larger gratings, can be transferred from a laboratory setup to a c-arm platform.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…While typical sizes of the field of view have been in the range of a few centimeters, recently progress towards larger specimens has been reported by either increasing the grating sizes up to 200 mm × 200 mm by stitching of smaller gratings 30 – 32 or the realization of scanning radiographic devices 33 – 35 , which means that the object is scanned by an interferometer with sufficient size to capture the object at once in one dimension. Additionally, the transition to a scanning setup overcomes the time-consuming phase-stepping procedure 9 , as the phase-stepping curve can then be measured by continuously moving the object through the scanner, if the phase image of the reference measurement comprises at least a complete fringe of the Moiré pattern in scanning direction 36 .…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Implementation of a Talbot-Lau interferometer in a clinical-like c-arm setup: A feasibility study

Horn

Leghissa

Kaeppler

et al. 2018

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X-ray grating-based phase-contrast imaging has raised interest regarding a variety of potential clinical applications, whereas the method is feasible using a medical x-ray tube. Yet, the transition towards a clinical setup remains challenging due to the requirement of mechanical robustness of the interferometer and high demands applying to medical equipment in clinical use. We demonstrate the successful implementation of a Talbot-Lau interferometer in an interventional c-arm setup. The consequence of vibrations induced by the rotating anode of the tube is discussed and the prototype is shown to provide a visibility of 21.4% at a tube voltage of 60 kV despite the vibrations. Regarding clinical application, the prototype is mainly set back due to the limited size of the field of view covering an area of 17 mm × 46 mm. A c-arm offers the possibility to change the optical axis according to the requirements of the medical examination. We provide a method to correct for artifacts that result from the angulation of the c-arm. Finally, the images of a series of measurements with the c-arm in different angulated positions are shown. Thereby, it is sufficient to perform a single reference measurement in parking position that is valid for the complete series despite angulation.

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“…The gold gratings have a period of 5.4 μm and are produced by the Karlsruhe Institute of Technology ( KIT ) 20 , 21 . The inter-grating distance is 50 cm, optimized for high spectral acceptance, leading to a visibility of approximately 36% 16 for a spectrum filtered by the three gratings and a water tank of around 2 cm thickness.…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

High resolution laboratory grating-based X-ray phase-contrast CT

Viermetz

Birnbacher

Willner

et al. 2018

Sci Rep

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The conventional form of computed tomography using X-ray attenuation without any contrast agents is of limited use for the characterization of soft tissue in many fields of medical and biological studies. Grating-based phase-contrast computed tomography (gbPC-CT) is a promising alternative imaging method solving the low soft tissue contrast without the need of any contrast agent. While highly sensitive measurements are possible using conventional X-ray sources the spatial resolution does often not fulfill the requirements for specific imaging tasks, such as visualization of pathologies. The focus of this study is the increase in spatial resolution without loss of sensitivity. To overcome this limitation a super-resolution reconstruction based on sub-pixel shifts involving a deconvolution of the image data during each iteration is applied. In our study we achieve an effective pixel size of 28 μm with a conventional rotating anode tube and a photon-counting detector. We also demonstrate that the method can upgrade existing setups to measure tomographies with higher resolution. The results show the increase in resolution at high sensitivity and with the ability to make quantitative measurements. The combination of sparse sampling and statistical iterative reconstruction may be used to reduce the total measurement time. In conclusion, we present high-quality and high-resolution tomographic images of biological samples to demonstrate the experimental feasibility of super-resolution reconstruction.

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Large field-of-view tiled grating structures for X-ray phase-contrast imaging

Cited by 44 publications

References 26 publications

X-ray dark-field imaging of the human lung—A feasibility study on a deceased body

X-ray dark-field imaging of the human lung—A feasibility study on a deceased body

Implementation of a Talbot-Lau interferometer in a clinical-like c-arm setup: A feasibility study

High resolution laboratory grating-based X-ray phase-contrast CT

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