Lyburn Iain D, Scott Robert, Cornford Eleanor, Bouzy Pascaline, Stone Nicholas, Greenwood Charlene, Bouybayoune Ihsanne, Pinder Sarah E, Rogers Keith
Gloucestershire Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust, Cheltenham, United Kingdom.
Cranfield Forensic Institute, Cranfield University, Swindon, United Kingdom.
Heliyon. 2024 Mar 11;10(6):e27686. doi: 10.1016/j.heliyon.2024.e27686. eCollection 2024 Mar 30.
The potential of breast microcalcification chemistry to provide clinically valuable intelligence is being increasingly studied. However, acquisition of crystallographic details has, to date, been limited to high brightness, synchrotron radiation sources. This study, for the first time, evaluates a laboratory-based system that interrogates histological sections containing microcalcifications. The principal objective was to determine the measurement precision of the laboratory system and assess whether this was sufficient to provide potentially clinical valuable information.
Sections from 5 histological specimens from breast core biopsies obtained to evaluate mammographic calcification were examined using a synchrotron source and a laboratory-based instrument. The samples were chosen to represent a significant proportion of the known breast tissue, mineralogical landscape. Data were subsequently analysed using conventional methods and microcalcification characteristics such as crystallographic phase, chemical deviation from ideal stoichiometry and microstructure were determined.
The crystallographic phase of each microcalcification (e.g., hydroxyapatite, whitlockite) was easily determined from the laboratory derived data even when a mixed phase was apparent. Lattice parameter values from the laboratory experiments agreed well with the corresponding synchrotron values and, critically, were determined to precisions that were significantly greater than required for potential clinical exploitation.
It has been shown that crystallographic characteristics of microcalcifications can be determined in the laboratory with sufficient precision to have potential clinical value. The work will thus enable exploitation acceleration of these latent microcalcification features as current dependence upon access to limited synchrotron resources is minimized.
乳腺微钙化化学提供具有临床价值信息的潜力正受到越来越多的研究。然而，迄今为止，晶体学细节的获取仅限于高亮度的同步辐射源。本研究首次评估了一种基于实验室的系统，该系统可对含有微钙化的组织学切片进行检测。主要目的是确定该实验室系统的测量精度，并评估其是否足以提供具有潜在临床价值的信息。
使用同步辐射源和基于实验室的仪器，对从乳腺芯针活检获取的5个组织学标本切片进行检查，以评估乳腺X线摄影中的钙化情况。选择这些样本以代表已知乳腺组织矿物学特征的很大一部分。随后使用传统方法对数据进行分析，并确定微钙化的特征，如晶体相、与理想化学计量比的化学偏差和微观结构。
即使存在混合相，从实验室获得的数据也能轻松确定每个微钙化的晶体相（例如，羟基磷灰石、白磷钙矿）。实验室实验得到的晶格参数值与相应的同步辐射值吻合良好，关键的是，其测定精度明显高于潜在临床应用所需的精度。
研究表明，微钙化的晶体学特征可以在实验室中以足够的精度确定，具有潜在的临床价值。因此，这项工作将加速对这些潜在微钙化特征的利用，因为目前对有限同步辐射资源的依赖已降至最低。
