Li Guang, Cong Wenxiang, Michaelson James S, Liu Hong, Gjesteby Lars, Wang Ge
Biomedical Imaging Center, BME/CBIS, Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, New York, USA.
Department of Pathology, Harvard Medical School, Massachusetts, USA.
IEEE Trans Radiat Plasma Med Sci. 2018 Jul;2(4):315-325. doi: 10.1109/TRPMS.2018.2839066. Epub 2018 May 21.
X-ray imaging techniques, including x-ray radiography and computed tomography, have been in use for decades and proven effective and indispensable in diagnosis and therapy due to their fine resolution and fast acquisition speed. However, the innate disadvantage of x-ray is the poor soft tissue contrast. Small-angle scattering signals were shown to provide unique information about the abnormality of soft tissues that is complementary to the traditional attenuation image. Currently, there is no effective small-angle scattering detection system. In this paper, we propose a new "collimation" design dedicated to capture a small-angle scattering radiographic image directly, which carries critical pathological information for differentiation between normal and abnormal tissues. Our design consists of two interlaced gratings so that both the primary flux and Compton scattering photons are effectively blocked to leave the apertures mainly open to small-angle scattering photons. Theoretical analysis and Monte Carlo simulations demonstrate that small-angle scattering radiography is feasible with our proposed technology.
X射线成像技术，包括X射线摄影和计算机断层扫描，已经使用了几十年，由于其高分辨率和快速采集速度，在诊断和治疗中已被证明是有效且不可或缺的。然而，X射线的固有缺点是软组织对比度差。小角散射信号被证明能提供关于软组织异常的独特信息，这与传统的衰减图像互补。目前，还没有有效的小角散射检测系统。在本文中，我们提出了一种新的“准直”设计，专门用于直接捕获小角散射射线图像，该图像携带用于区分正常组织和异常组织的关键病理信息。我们的设计由两个交错的光栅组成，这样一次通量和康普顿散射光子都能被有效阻挡，使孔径主要对小角散射光子开放。理论分析和蒙特卡罗模拟表明，我们提出的技术使小角散射射线照相术成为可行。
