Clinical boundary conditions for grating-based differential phase-contrast mammography.
Research in grating-based differential phase-contrast imaging (DPCI) has gained increasing momentum in the past couple of years. The first results on the potential clinical benefits of the technique for X-ray mammography are becoming available and indicate improvements in terms of general image quality, the delineation of lesions versus the background tissue and the visibility of microcalcifications. In this paper, we investigate some aspects related to the technical feasibility of DPCI for human X-ray mammography. After a short introduction to state-of-the-art full-field digital mammography in terms of technical aspects as well as clinical aspects, we put together boundary conditions for DPCI. We then discuss the implications for system design in a comparative manner for systems with two-dimensional detectors versus slit-scanning systems, stating advantages and disadvantages of the two designs. Finally, focusing on a slit-scanning system, we outline a possible concept for phase acquisition.
Philips Technologie GmbH, Innovative Technologies, Philips Research Laboratories, Roentgenstrasse 24, 22335 Hamburg, Germany.
Ewald
E
Roessl
Heiner
H
Daerr
Thomas
T
Koehler
Gerhard
G
Martens
Udo
U
van Stevendaal
D006358:Hot Temperature; D006801:Humans; D007091:Image Processing, Computer-Assisted; D007368:Interferometry; D008327:Mammography / Q000295:instrumentation / Q000379:methods*; D008408:Mastectomy; D009068:Movement; D011829:Radiation Dosage; D011856:Radiographic Image Enhancement; D013997:Time Factors
Lau–Talbot interferometry; differential phase-contrast imaging; phase-contrast mammography