In-line phase contrast micro-CT reconstruction for biomedical specimens

Abstract

X-ray phase contrast micro computed tomography (micro-CT) can non-destructively provide the internal structure information of soft tissues and low atomic number materials. It has become an invaluable analysis tool for biomedical specimens. Here an in-line phase contrast micro-CT reconstruction technique is reported, which consists of a projection extraction method and the conventional filter back-projection (FBP) reconstruction algorithm. The projection extraction is implemented by applying the Fourier transform to the forward projections of in-line phase contrast micro-CT. This work comprises a numerical study of the method and its experimental verification using a biomedical specimen dataset measured at an X-ray tube source micro-CT setup. The numerical and experimental results demonstrate that the presented technique can improve the imaging contrast of biomedical specimens. It will be of interest for a wide range of in-line phase contrast micro-CT applications in medicine and biology.

Iterative Algorithm for 4D Tomography Reconstruction Using a Single Projection per Time Step

“…With a synchrotron source, it is possible to greatly reduce the projection acquisition time [14]- [16]. Tomographic experiments with insects [17]- [19] have demonstrated the ability to monitor the movement of their limbs without involving special reconstruction algorithms. Laboratory experiments to study the work of muscle groups responsible for various functional actions have also been carried out with small animals [20].…”

Geometry-constraint-scan imaging for in-line phase contrast micro-CT

“…X-ray computed tomography (CT) enables the non-destructive visualization of the internal structure of objects [1][2][3][4][5] and is a powerful analysis tool in biology and medicine [6][7][8][9]. In particular, for medical diagnostic applications, x-ray CT has become an invaluable tool during the last 30 years.…”

“…However, the conventional x-ray CT uses the intensity attenuation that x-rays undergo when passing through matter as the imaging signal and provides poor contrast and spatial resolution for weakly absorbing materials and structures with low atomic number. For example, since the absorption coefficients of soft tissue are very close to those of water, it is very difficult to distinguish internal features in the soft materials [6].…”

“…In-line phase contrast micro-CT has been developed to get a spatial resolution in the micrometer range and has become a useful tool in the field of biomedical imaging [6,12,28,[31][32][33]. Phase projection scanning and extraction methods play a key role in these systems.…”

“…It is sometimes impossible due to the constraint from the experimental system and the samples. The second one deletes the contactdetector scan but assumes that the specimen has no intensity attenuation to x-ray and is a pure phase object [6,31,[36][37][38]. Obviously in practice this assumption will degrade the imaging results.…”