User Meeting 2016

Optimization of in-line X-ray phase-contrast tomographic imaging for breast cancer screening

Not scheduled

15m

National Centre for Synchrotron Science

Poster Imaging

Speaker

Mr Darren Thompson (CSIRO)

Description

The problem of optimising the experimental protocol and data analysis for in-vivo breast cancer screening was investigated using synchrotron-based in-line X-ray phase-contrast tomography. Results are presented of experiments conducted at the IMBL and SYRMEP beamlines of Australian and Elettra Synchrotrons using the propagation-based phase-contrast mammographic tomography method, which incorporates both absorption and X-ray phase information. The study aims to obtain images of full-size human breast tissue samples, with radiologically acceptable X-ray dose, in order to investigate the degree of improvement of the diagnostic image quality achievable using in-line phase-contrast image acquisition protocols via the incorporation of X-ray phase retrieval into the reconstruction pipeline. Parameters such as the X-ray energy, sample-to-detector distance and data processing methods were tested, evaluated and optimized (with respect to the estimated diagnostic value) using a mastectomy sample with a malignant lesion. The results of quantitative evaluation of images were obtained by means of radiological assessment carried out by experienced specialists. A comparative analysis was performed between corresponding X-ray and histological images of the specimen. The outcomes of this study provide the practical imaging conditions and the CT reconstruction procedures appropriate for low-dose phase-contrast mammographic screening of live patients at specially designed synchrotron beamlines.