title: Visualization and Pathological Characteristics of Hepatic Alveolar Echinococcosis with Synchrotron-based X-ray Phase Sensitive Micro-tomography.
abstract: Propagation-based phase-contrast computed tomography (PPCT) utilizes highly sensitive phase-contrast technology applied to X-ray micro-tomography, especially with the extensive use of synchrotron radiation (SR). Performing phase retrieval (PR) on the acquired angular projections can enhance image contrast and enable quantitative imaging. We employed the combination of SR-PPCT and PR for the histopathological evaluation of hepatic alveolar echinococcosis (HAE) disease and demonstrated the validity and superiority of PR-based SR-PPCT. A high-resolution angular projection data set of a human postoperative specimen of HAE disease was acquired, which was processed by graded ethanol concentration fixation (GECF). The reconstructed images from both approaches, with the projection data directly used and preprocessed by PR for tomographic reconstruction, were compared in terms of the tissue contrast-to-noise ratio and density spatial resolution. The PR-based SR-PPCT was selected for microscale measurement and the 3D visualization of HAE disease. Our experimental results demonstrated that the PR-based SR-PPCT technique is greatly suitable for the discrimination of pathological tissues and the characterization of HAE. In addition, this new technique is superior to conventional hospital CT and microscopy for the three-dimensional, non-destructive microscale measurement of HAE. This PR-based SR-PPCT technique has great potential for in situmicroscale histopathological analysis and diagnosis, especially for applications involving soft tissues and organs.
authors.affiliation: College of Medical Engineering and Technology, Xinjiang Medical University, Urumchi 830011, China.
authors.forename: Huiqiang
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Liu
authors.affiliation: Hepatobiliary &Echinococcosis Surgery, FirstAffiliated Hospital, Xinjiang Medical University, Urumchi 830054, China.
authors.forename: Xuewen
authors.initials: X
authors.lastname: Ji
authors.affiliation: State Key Laboratory Incubation Base of Xinjiang Major Diseases Research, FirstAffiliated Hospital, Xinjiang Medical University, Urumchi 830054, China.
authors.forename: Li
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Sun
authors.affiliation: SSRF, Shanghai Institute of Applied Physics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Shanghai 201800, China.
authors.forename: Tiqiao
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Xiao
authors.affiliation: SSRF, Shanghai Institute of Applied Physics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Shanghai 201800, China.
authors.forename: Honglan
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Xie
authors.affiliation: SSRF, Shanghai Institute of Applied Physics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Shanghai 201800, China.
authors.forename: Yanan
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Fu
authors.affiliation: Imaging Center, First Affiliated Hospital, Xinjiang Medical University, Urumchi 830054, China.
authors.forename: Yuan
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Zhao
authors.affiliation: Imaging Center, First Affiliated Hospital, Xinjiang Medical University, Urumchi 830054, China.
authors.forename: Wenya
authors.initials: W
authors.lastname: Liu
authors.affiliation: College of Medical Engineering and Technology, Xinjiang Medical University, Urumchi 830011, China.
authors.forename: Xueliang
authors.initials: X
authors.lastname: Zhang
authors.affiliation: State Key Laboratory Incubation Base of Xinjiang Major Diseases Research, FirstAffiliated Hospital, Xinjiang Medical University, Urumchi 830054, China.
authors.forename: Renyong
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Lin
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D004444:Echinococcosis, Hepatic / Q000000981:diagnostic imaging*; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D017356:Synchrotrons; D055114:X-Ray Microtomography / Q000295:instrumentation* / Q000379:methods*