Evaluation of x-ray diffraction enhanced imaging in the diagnosis of breast cancer

Liu, Cheng‐Lin; Yan, Xiaohui; Zhang, Xinyi; Yang, Wentao; Peng, Weijun; Shi, Daren; Zhu, Ping; Huang, Wanxia; Qin, Yuan

doi:10.1088/0031-9155/52/2/008

Cited by 39 publications

(19 citation statements)

References 22 publications

(18 reference statements)

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“…We ran a reader study to evaluate lesion feature visibility with correlation to pathology. While significant synchrotron-based DEI research has assessed breast lesion characteristic visibility (23,24,26,28,29,45,46) , no previously published studies have evaluated full-thickness human breast tissue specimens on either a synchrotron-based or an x-ray tube-based DEI system. The current study demonstrates that images acquired on our DEI-PR system have clinical utility for breast imaging applications with minimal radiation dose.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

X-ray tube-based diffraction enhanced imaging prototype images of full-thickness breast specimens: reader study evaluation

et al. 2009

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Conventional mammographic image contrast is derived from x-ray absorption, resulting in breast structure visualization due to density gradients that attenuate radiation without distinction between transmitted and scattered or refracted x-rays. This leads to image blurring and contrast reduction, hindering the early detection of small or otherwise occult cancers. Diffraction enhanced imaging (DEI) allows for dramatically increased contrast with decreased radiation dose compared to conventional mammographic imaging due to monochromatic x-rays, its unique refraction-based contrast mechanism and excellent scatter rejection. However, a lingering drawback to the clinical translation of DEI has been the requirement for synchrotron radiation. Our laboratory developed a DEI prototype (DEI-PR) utilizing a readily available Tungsten xray tube source and traditional DEI crystal optics, providing soft tissue images at 60keV. To demonstrate the clinical utility of our DEI-PR, we acquired images of full-thickness human breast tissue specimens on synchrotron-based DEI, DEI-PR and digital mammography systems. A reader study was designed to allow unbiased assessment of system performance when analyzing three systems with dissimilar imaging parameters and requiring analysis of images unfamiliar to radiologists. A panel of expert radiologists evaluated lesion feature visibility and histopathology correlation after receiving training on the interpretation of refraction contrast mammographic images. Preliminary data analysis suggests that our DEI system performed roughly equivalently with the traditional DEI system, demonstrating a significant step toward clinical translation of this modality for breast cancer applications. BACKGROUND AND SIGNIFICANCECancer imparts distinct and measurable changes in breast tissue at the cellular level. However, absorption contrast based on the spatial distribution of x-ray attenuation does not always provide sufficient contrast due to often minimal differences in x-ray attenuation between normal and cancerous tissues. These microscopic and macroscopic alterations may cause x-ray refraction, a minute change in the direction of x-ray propagation, which is exploited by phase contrast imaging. X-ray refraction contrast is not yet widely used in medical imaging although several phase-contrast imaging devices are in various stages of research and development. (1)(2)(3)(4)(5)(6)(7)(8)(9)(10)(11)(12)(13)(14)(15)(16)(17)(18)(19)(20) Diffraction enhanced imaging (DEI) is a specific type of analyzer-based phase contrast imaging. Traditionally, DEI has used intense, highly collimated synchrotron radiation (SR) to produce images based on absorption, refraction and extinction contrast. (5,6,21) The application of DEI to breast imaging has consistently provided superior contrast and signalto-noise ratio (SNR) when compared to conventional radiographic images.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

X-ray tube-based diffraction enhanced imaging prototype images of full-thickness breast specimens: reader study evaluation

et al. 2009

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“…Recently, using synchrotron radiation sources, the DEI imaging technique has been adopted to investigate refraction angle contrast mechanisms and its apparent absorption images, as well as correlation with conventional attenuation-based contrast radiography [32,86,89]. It was shown that the DEI refraction angle contrast and radiograph contrast both depend on the density difference between the two materials (fibrils and normal tissue) since they are based on the same physical mechanism, namely the increased density of cancerous fibril tissue.…”

Section: High-contrast Mammographymentioning

confidence: 99%

Development of phase-contrast X-ray imaging techniques and potential medical applications

2008

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“…This is the mechanism of the X-ray phase contrast imaging (XPCI), which has been quickly develop to form the X-ray phase contrast CT imaging (XPI-CT) after the combination of XPI-CI and the computed tomography (CT). In recent decades, several XPI-CT methods have been proposed, such as in-line X-ray phase contrast CT (IL-XPCI-CT), diffraction enhanced CT imaging (DEI CT) [4][5][6][7]. The in-line X-ray phase contrast CT method has been mainly used by many researchers [8][9][10].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

The micro-structure of Shangjuxu acupoint (ST37) by X-ray phase-contrast CT imaging based on synchrotron radiation

Liu

Wang

et al. 2014

2014 7th International Conference on Biomedical Engineering and Informatics

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In this paper, the micro-structure of the Shangjuxu acupuncture point or tissue where there were no acupoints in the fractional rabbit hind limb were studied by in-line phase contrast CT imaging (IL-XPCI-CT) methods based on synchrotron radiation. Then the imaging results are reconstructed in threedimensional limit, and the 3D images for different tissues are compared. The experiments were performed at X-ray imaging and biomedical application beam-line (BL13W1) of Shanghai Synchrotron Radiation Facility (SSRF). The organization of microvascular alignment can be visualized easily in the projection. The microvascular become rich and have a tendency to be concentrated on the point area. In the slices, there is the phenomenon of more micro reuniting. Using three-dimensional reconstruction, the distribution of microvascular can be seen throughout acupuncture area, there are both the trend along strike meridians and the intermittent aggregation. The density of micro-vessels was calculated for tissues with acupoints or without acupoints. Our results showed that there was one significantly higher density of the micro-vessels, where Shangjuxu acupoint was located. In the acupoint, there was a large number of involutedly microvascular structures, which was segmental. The width of each segment is not equivalent, there is a tendency that the intermediate segment is relatively wide, both sides of the acupuncture are relatively narrow which width is a Gaussian distribution. The FWHM values of Gaussian distribution curve can be determined from the scope of the Shangjuxu acupoints, which are basically consistent with the acupuncture point size in the traditional Chinese medicine theory. Nevertheless, in nonacupoint area, the microvascular structure was relatively simple and flat.

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Evaluation of x-ray diffraction enhanced imaging in the diagnosis of breast cancer

Cited by 39 publications

References 22 publications

X-ray tube-based diffraction enhanced imaging prototype images of full-thickness breast specimens: reader study evaluation

X-ray tube-based diffraction enhanced imaging prototype images of full-thickness breast specimens: reader study evaluation

Development of phase-contrast X-ray imaging techniques and potential medical applications

The micro-structure of Shangjuxu acupoint (ST37) by X-ray phase-contrast CT imaging based on synchrotron radiation

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