Objective: Even though the techniques used for breast cancer identification have advanced over the years, current mammography based on X-rays absorption, the "gold standard" screening test at present, still has some shortcomings as concerns sensitivity and specificity to early-stage cancers, due to poor differentiation between tumor and normal tissues, especially in the case of the dense breasts. We investigate a possible additional technique for breast cancer detection with higher sensitivity and low dose, X-ray phase-contrast or refraction-based imaging with ultrahigh angular sensitivity grating interferometers, having several meters length. Approach: Towards this goal, we built and tested on a mammography phantom, a table-top laboratory setup based on a 5.7 m long Talbot-Lau interferometer with angular sensitivity better than 1 µrad. We used a high-power X-ray tungsten anode tube with a 400 µm focal spot, operated at 40 kVp and 15 mA with a 2 mm aluminum filter. Main results: The results reported in our paper confirm the ultrahigh sensitivity and dose economy possible with our setup. The visibility of objects simulating cancerous formations is strongly increased in the refraction images over the attenuation ones, even at a low dose of 0.32 mGy. Notably, the smallest fiber of 400 µm diameter and calcifications specs of 160 µm in diameter are detected, even though the spatial resolution at the object of our magnification M~2 setup with a 400 µm source spot is only ~250 µm. Significance: Our experiments on a mammography phantom illustrate the capabilities of the proposed technique and can open the way toward low-dose interferometric mammography.
Phase contrast X-ray imaging can be much more sensitive to soft tissue lesions than conventional absorption contrast X-ray imaging, being a potential game changer for medical imaging. A phase contrast method well suited for clinical implementation is the grating interferometry. We show that by using μm period multi-meter long interferometers one can strongly increase the phase sensitivity and lower the dose towards soft tissue imaging applications such mammography. Conventional X-ray tubes do not provide, however, sufficient X-ray flux for clinical imaging with such long interferometers. Instead, 100-TW class lasers could produce highly directional and intense X-ray sources ideal for high sensitivity medical interferometry. We present the X-ray source characteristics required for clinical interferometry, advantages and disadvantages of betatron versus inverse Compton scattering sources for clinical application, and some practical considerations towards laser based interferometric medical imaging.
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