Synchrotron-radiation computed tomography has been applied in many research fields. Here, PITRE (Phase-sensitive X-ray Image processing and Tomography REconstruction) and PITRE_BM (PITRE Batch Manager) are presented. PITRE supports phase retrieval for propagation-based phase-contrast imaging/tomography (PPCI/PPCT), extracts apparent absorption, refractive and scattering information of diffraction enhanced imaging (DEI), and allows parallel-beam tomography reconstruction for conventional absorption CT data and for PPCT phase retrieved and DEI-CT extracted information. PITRE_BM is a batch processing manager for PITRE: it executes a series of tasks, created via PITRE, without manual intervention. Both PITRE and PITRE_BM are coded in Interactive Data Language (IDL), and have a user-friendly graphical user interface. They are freeware and can run on Microsoft Windows systems via IDL Virtual Machine, which can be downloaded for free and does not require a license. The data-processing principle and some examples of application will be presented.
The measurement of the linear attenuation coefficients of breast tissues is of fundamental importance in the field of breast x-ray diagnostic imaging. Different groups have evaluated the linear attenuation coefficients of breast tissues by carrying out direct attenuation measurements in which the specimens were thin and selected as homogeneous as possible. Here, we use monochromatic and high-intensity synchrotron radiation computed tomography (SR CT) to evaluate the linear attenuation coefficients of surgical breast tissues in the energy range from 15 to 26.5 keV. X-ray detection is performed by a custom digital silicon micro-strip device, developed in the framework of the PICASSO INFN experiment. Twenty-three human surgical breast samples were selected for SR CT and histological study. Six of them underwent CT, both as fresh tissue and after formalin fixation, while the remaining 17 were imaged only as formalin-fixed tissues. Our results for fat and fibrous tissues are in good agreement with the published values. However, in contrast to the published data, our measurements show no significant differences between fibrous and tumor tissues. Moreover, our results for fresh and formalin-fixed tissues demonstrate a reduction of the linear attenuation coefficient for fibrous and tumor tissues after fixation.
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