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.

Characterization of Cystic Lesions by Spectral Mammography: Results of a Clinical Pilot Study.

Objectives: Round lesions are a common mammographic finding, which can contribute more than 20% of overall recalls at screening. Discrimination of cystic fluid from solid tissue by spectral x-ray imaging has been demonstrated in specimen experiments. This work translates these results into a clinical pilot study to investigate the feasibility of discriminating cystic from solid lesions using spectral mammography.

A study on mastectomy samples to evaluate breast imaging quality and potential clinical relevance of differential phase contrast mammography.

Objectives: Differential phase contrast and scattering-based x-ray mammography has the potential to provide additional and complementary clinically relevant information compared with absorption-based mammography. The purpose of our study was to provide a first statistical evaluation of the imaging capabilities of the new technique compared with digital absorption mammography.

Materials And Methods: We investigated non-fixed mastectomy samples of 33 patients with invasive breast cancer, using grating-based differential phase contrast mammography (mammoDPC) with a conventional, low-brilliance x-ray tube.