RATIONALE AND OBJECTIVES
We obtained image contrast in pathologic specimens without the use of contrast material by using phase-contrast imaging with synchrotron X-rays.
METHODS
An experiment was performed at the three-pole superconducting vertical wiggler beam line BL-14B at the Photon Factory in Tsukuba, Japan. The X-ray phase-contrast imaging system consisted of a double crystal monochromator, an asymmetrically cut crystal monochromator, a triple Laue-case X-ray interferometer, and film. The pathologic specimen was a sample from human liver that had metastatic carcinoma.
RESULTS
The X-ray phase-contrast images of the pathologic specimen clearly depicted the cancerous lesion without the use of contrast enhancement, and the image showed good correlation with the photograph of the specimen. The X-ray absorption image did not differentiate between the normal liver tissue and the tumor.
CONCLUSION
The results of this preliminary experiment reveal that for materials such as biologic specimens with a low atomic number, X-ray phase-contrast imaging better differentiates tissues than does the absorption contrast imaging commonly used in radiology.
[1]
M. Hart.
Ten years of x-ray interferometry
,
1975
.
[2]
A. Momose,et al.
Phase-contrast radiographs of nonstained rat cerebellar specimen.
,
1995,
Medical physics.
[3]
U. Bonse,et al.
AN X‐RAY INTERFEROMETER
,
1965
.
[4]
Atsushi Momose,et al.
Phase-contrast x-ray computed tomography for observing biological specimens and organic materials
,
1995
.
[5]
G. Shinoda,et al.
Proceedings of the Sixth International Conference on X-ray optics and microanalysis
,
1972
.
[6]
Atsushi Momose,et al.
Demonstration of phase-contrast X-ray computed tomography using an X-ray interferometer
,
1995
.
[7]
U. Bonse,et al.
Principles and design of Laue-case X-Ray interferometers
,
1965
.