X-ray dark-field chest imaging for detection and quantification of emphysema in patients with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease: a diagnostic accuracy study.

Background: Although advanced medical imaging technologies give detailed diagnostic information, a low-dose, fast, and inexpensive option for early detection of respiratory diseases and follow-ups is still lacking. The novel method of x-ray dark-field chest imaging might fill this gap but has not yet been studied in living humans. Enabling the assessment of microstructural changes in lung parenchyma, this technique presents a more sensitive alternative to conventional chest x-rays, and yet requires only a fraction of the dose applied in CT.

Dosimetry on first clinical dark-field chest radiography.

Purpose: The purpose of this study was to evaluate the dose characteristic for patient examinations at the first clinical X-ray dark-field chest radiography system and to determine whether the effective patient dose is within a clinically acceptable dose range.

Methods: A clinical setup for grating-based dark-field chest radiography was constructed and commissioned, operating at a tube voltage of 70 kVp. Thermoluminescent dosimeter (TLD) measurements were conducted using an anthropomorphic phantom modeling the reference person to obtain a conversion coefficient relating dose area product (DAP) to effective patient dose at the dark-field system.

X-ray dark-field imaging of the human lung-A feasibility study on a deceased body.

Disorders of the lungs such as chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) are a major cause of chronic morbidity and mortality and the third leading cause of death in the world. The absence of sensitive diagnostic tests for early disease stages of COPD results in under-diagnosis of this treatable disease in an estimated 60-85% of the patients. In recent years a grating-based approach to X-ray dark-field contrast imaging has shown to be very sensitive for the detection and quantification of pulmonary emphysema in small animal models.

Depiction of pneumothoraces in a large animal model using x-ray dark-field radiography.

The aim of this study was to assess the diagnostic value of x-ray dark-field radiography to detect pneumothoraces in a pig model. Eight pigs were imaged with an experimental grating-based large-animal dark-field scanner before and after induction of a unilateral pneumothorax. Image contrast-to-noise ratios between lung tissue and the air-filled pleural cavity were quantified for transmission and dark-field radiograms.