We present the first ex vivo images of fresh, native breast tissue obtained from mastectomy specimens using grating interferometry. This technique yields improved diagnostic capabilities when compared with conventional mammography, especially when discerning the type of malignant conversions and their breadth within normal breast tissue. These promising results advance us toward the ultimate goal, using grating interferometry in vivo on humans in a clinical setting.

Grating-based x-ray dark-field computed tomography is a functional method that utilizes the scattering contrast mechanism to explore the inaccessible spatially resolved internal structure of the sample. In this letter, we show that the second moment of the scattering angle distribution can be expressed as the minus logarithm of the visibility degradation of the oscillation curve in grating-based imaging. According to the conclusion of Khelashvili et al. [Phys. Med. Biol. 51, 221 (2006)], the minus logarithm of the visibility ratio fulfills the line integral condition; consequently the scattering information can be reconstructed quantitatively by conventional computed tomography algorithms. Results from a computer simulation and from an actual experiment both validate our deduction.

An in situ combination of surface plasmon resonance (SPR) spectroscopy and quartz crystal microbalance (QCM) is used to study the electropolymerization and the doping/dedoping behavior of thin poly(pyrrole) (ppy) films in aqueous solutions. A mixed anion and cation exchange behavior is observed. The mass as determined with the QCM continuously increases during redox cycling. The combined QCM/SPR data reveal that this is caused by a relatively slow process occurring when ppy is in the oxidized (polaronic) state. This behavior is interpreted as an accumulation of neutral salt and solvent in the film.

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Latest progresses in breast imaging using differential phase contrast technique pose the question how to fuse multiple information (yielded by the absorption, differential phase, and scattering signals) into a single, but more informative image for clinical diagnosis and evaluation. In this work, we propose an image fusion scheme based on the multiple-resolution (MR) framework. The three signals are first transformed into multiple bands presenting information at different frequency and then a two-step processing follows: section 3.2 an intra-band processing enhances the local signal-to-noise ratio using a novel noise estimation method and context modeling; section 3.3 an inter-band processing weights each band by considering their characteristics and contributions, as well as suppressing the global noise level. The fused image, which looks similar to conventional mammogram but with significantly enhanced detail features, is then reconstructed by inverse transform. This fused image is compatible with clinical settings and enables the radiologists to use their years of diagnosis experiences in mammography. KEYWORDS: X-ray mammography and scinto-and MRI-mammography; Medical-image reconstruction methods and algorithms, computer-aided software; X-ray radiography and digital radiography (DR); Multi-modality systems

Phase contrast and scattering-based X-ray imaging are very promising tools for medical diagnostics because they are able to provide additional and complementary information to traditional absorption-based methods. In this work, we discuss the investigation of three native breast samples with a grating interferometer equipped with a conventional X-ray tube, the full study being published in ref. [1]. We briefly introduce a method to fuse absorption, differential phase and scattering signals into a unique image with improved diagnostic contents. Our approach yields complementary and inaccessible information on the electron density distribution and the small-angle scattering power of the sample which could potentially answer clinically relevant, yet unresolved questions such as the capability to unequivocally discern between (pre-) malignant changes and post-operative scars or to distinguish cancer-invaded regions within healthy tissue.

Grating interferometry breast computed tomography (GI-BCT) has the potential to provide enhanced soft tissue contrast and to improve visualization of cancerous lesions for breast imaging. However, with a conventional scanning protocol, a GI-BCT scan requires longer scanning time and higher operation complexity compared to conventional attenuation-based CT. This is mainly due to multiple grating movements at every projection angle, so-called phase stepping, which is used to retrieve attenuation, phase, and scattering (dark-field) signals. To reduce the measurement time and complexity and extend the field of view, we have adopted a helical GI-CT setup and present here the corresponding tomographic reconstruction algorithm. This method allows simultaneous reconstruction of attenuation, phase contrast, and scattering images while avoiding grating movements. Experiments on simulated phantom and real initial intensity, visibility and phase maps are provided to validate our method.