The objectives of this study were to develop and evaluate a breast tissue equivalent phantom that can be used for dual purposes, conventional x-ray imaging and ultrasonography. This phantom was designed based on the prototype of an intralipid-gel soft tissue mimicking phantom used for laser photothermal therapy. The glandularities and the densities of the phantom can be adjusted by modifying the ratio of intralipid and other ingredients and adding fiber powders. An adipose tissue phantom and a glandular tissue phantom were firstly developed and phantoms of different glandularities were further developed through mixing different weight proportions of adipose and glandular. To validate the properties of the phantom for the applications of x-ray imaging techniques, three methods were employed: (1) the compositions of the elements contained in the phantoms were estimated through calculations; (2) the x-ray mass attenuation coefficients of the phantom were calculated based on the elemental compositions; (3) the x-ray photon energies deposit in the phantoms with different glandularities were simulated using Geant4 Simulation Tool Kit. The results showed high agreements with the real breast tissues at corresponding breast glandularities. For the application in ultrasonography, the elasticity of the phantom was determined by measuring the value of Young’s modulus and the value of 39 ± 10 kPa indicated the satisfactory of the requirement of being used as phantom for ultrasound imaging. Therefore, the phantoms developed in this study potentially provided a solution of dualpurpose breast tissue mimicking phantom in the needs of different level of glandularity.
The objective of this study was to demonstrate the capability of the high-energy in-line phase contrast imaging in detecting the breast tumors which are undetectable by conventional x-ray imaging but detectable by ultrasound. Experimentally, a CIRS multipurpose breast phantom with heterogeneous 50% glandular and 50% adipose breast tissue was imaged by high-energy in-line phase contrast system, conventional x-ray system and ultrasonography machine. The high-energy in-line phase contrast projection was acquired at 120 kVp, 0.3 mAs with the focal spot size of 18.3 μm. The conventional x-ray projection was acquired at 40 kVp, 3.3 mAs with the focal spot size of 22.26 μm. Both of the x-ray imaging acquisitions were conducted with a unique mean glandular dose of 0.08 mGy. As the result, the high-energy in-line phase contrast system was able to detect one lesion-like object which was also detected by the ultrasonography. This object was spherical shape with the length of about 12.28 mm. Also, the conventional x-ray system was not able to detect any objects. This result indicated the advantages provided by high-energy in-line phase contrast over conventional x-ray system in detecting lesion-like object under the same radiation dose. To meet the needs of current clinical strategies for high-density breasts screening, breast phantoms with higher glandular densities will be employed in future studies.
The objective of this study is to demonstrate the potential of using the High-energy in-line phase contrast x-ray imaging to detect lesions that are indistinguishable by conventional x-ray mammography but are detectable by supplemental ultrasound screening within dense breasts. For this study, a custom-made prototype x-ray/ultrasound dualmodality phantom that mimics dense breast is created to include embedded carbon fiber disks with multiple diameters and thicknesses. The phase contrast image is acquired using a prototype at 120kVp, 67μA, exposure time of 16.7sec and focal spot size of 18.3μm with average glandular dose (AGD) of 0.3mGy under a geometric magnification of 2.48. The conventional x-ray image is acquired with a bench top system operating at 40kVp, 300μA, exposure time of 50sec and same AGD. The results demonstrate that conventional x-ray imaging is unable to detect any of the carbon fiber disks, while phase contrast imaging and ultrasonography are able to detect most or all of the disks under the applied experimental conditions. These results illustrate phase contrast imaging is capable of detecting targets in a dual-modality phantom which simulates lesions in dense breast tissue, when the simulated lesions are not distinguishable by conventional mammography. Therefore mammographic screening with phase contrast technique could eventually replace both x-ray and ultrasonography for screening detection of small lesions with microcalcification in dense breasts where pathologic lesions are masked due to highly glandular tissue. These results encourage further investigation using high glandular density phantoms to further evaluate the effectiveness of phase contrast imaging as a single modality test, which combines the advantages of both x-ray and ultrasound imaging in cancer screening of patients with dense breasts.
In this study, the AuNP k-shell fluorescence spectra were measured by using a 100 mm long collimator to improve the detectability. The AuNPs were suspended in deionized water at different concentrations. The AuNP suspensions were excited by a micro focal spot x-ray tube with 130 kVp, 300 μA x-ray exposures. The emissions of the AuNP fluorescence were measured by a spectrometer located with an angle of 90 degrees with respect to the excitation beam. The fluorescence acquisition durations for each concentration mode were 3000 s. A 1.0 mm Pb filter and a 1 mm Al filter were utilized to optimize excitation beam and fluorescence emission, respectively. As a result, the k-shell fluorescence peaks, 66.99 keV and 68.80 keV of AuNP, were measured and observed in 0.1, 0.2, 0.4, 0.8, 1.0, 2.0, 4.0 mg/mL concentration modes. The linear relationship between the AuNP suspension concentrations and the number of photons of the fluorescence peaks were observed in the range of 0.1–4.0 mg/mL. The results of experimental measurements demonstrated up to 0.1 mg/mL (0.01 % in weight concentration) detectability.
The characteristic performance of a photon counting detector for X-ray fluorescence (XRF) imaging of gold nanoparticles (GNPs) is investigated. The investigations are first performed in three aspects: X-ray photon energy (keV) to pulse height (mV) conversion, noise floor determination, and linear detection ranges. Then, theoretical models are applied to evaluate the detection efficiency of X-ray photons with respect to an increased incident photon rate. Last, through exciting 100% pure GNPs by a conventional X-ray tube operated at a voltage of 110kVp, we acquire XRF spectrum in the threshold mode, based on which multi-energy thresholds are selected for XRF imaging of GNPs with low concentrations. Preliminary XRF imaging results of GNPs obtained in the imaging mode are presented and analyzed. This investigation study is essential to the development of fast and accurate XRF imaging of GNPs as well as other high atomic (Z) imaging contrast agents absorbed in cancerous cells.
The objective of this study was to compare the detectability of simulated objects within a dense breast phantom using high energy x-rays for phase sensitive breast imaging in comparison with a conventional imaging system. A 5 cm thick phantom was used which represented a compressed breast consisting of 70% glandular and 30% adipose tissue ratio in non-uniform background. The phantom had a 6 × 6 matrix of holes with milled depths ranging from 1 to 0.1 mm and diameters ranging from 4.25 to 0.25 mm representing simulated tumors. The in-line phase sensitive prototype was equipped with a micro-focus x-ray source and a flat panel detector with a 50 μm pixel pitch, both mounted on an optical rail. Phase contrast image of the phantom was acquired at 120 kVp, 4.5 mAs at source to object distance (SOD) of 68 cm and source to image detector distance (SIDD) of 170 cm with a geometric magnification (M) of 2.5. A 2.5 mm aluminum (Al) filter was used for beam hardening. The conventional image was acquired using the same porotype with the phantom in contact with the detector at 40 kVp, 12.5 mAs under SID = 68 cm. The mean glandular dose (Dg) for both the acquisitions was 1.3 mGy. The observer study and CNR analyses indicated that the phase contrast image had higher disk detectability as compared to the conventional image. The edge enhancement provided by the phase sensitive images warrants in identifying boundaries of malignant tissues and in providing optimal results in phase retrieval process. The potential demonstrated by this study for imaging a dense breast with a high energy phase sensitive x-ray imaging to improve tumor detection in warrants further investigation of this technique.
The purpose of this study is to demonstrate the feasibility of using a high-energy in-line phase contrast tomosynthesis system to quantitatively imaging microbubbles in a tissue simulating phantom under a limited radiation dose. The imaging system used in the investigation was a bench top in-line phase contrast tomosynthesis prototype operated under 120 kVp tube voltage and 0.5 mA tube current. A prime beam filter made of 2.3 mm Cu, 0.8 mm Pb and 1.0 mm Al was employed to obtain as large as possible portion of x-ray photon energy higher than 60 keV. The tissue simulating phantom was built by three acrylic slabs and a wax slab to mimic a 40 mm thick compressed breast. There were two tiny-sized structures with average 1 mm depth engraved on the two different layers. The microbubble suspensions with different concentrations were injected into those tiny structures. The inline phase contrast angular projections acquired were used to reconstruct the in-plane slices of the tiny structures on different layers. The CNRs vs microbubble concentrations were investigated. As the result, the microbubble suspensions were clearly visible, showing higher CNR when compared with the areas with no microbubble. Furthermore, a monotonously increasing relation between CNRs and microbubble concentrations was observed after calculating the area CNR of the phase contrast tomosynthesis slices.
This study compares the spatial resolution in step-and-shoot and continuous motion acquisition modes of digital tomosynthesis using a bench-top prototype designed for breast phantoms imaging. The prototype employs a flat panel detector with a 50 μm pixel pitch, a micro focus x-ray tube and a motorized stage. A sharp metal edge with a thickness of 0.2 mm was used to measure the modulation transfer function (MTF). The edge was rotated from −7.5° to +7.5° with 1.5° increments to acquire 11 angular projections using 40 kVp, 500 μA with 5.55 s per projection. In continuous motion mode, the motorized stage moved the test object for the whole exposure time at a speed of 0.377 mm/s. The impact of acquisition speed in continuous DBT was also investigated, and a high speed of 0.753 mm/s was used. In step-and-shoot mode, the cutoff frequencies (10% MTF) in projection view (0°) and reconstructed DBT slices were 5.55 lp/mm and 4.95 lp/mm. Spatial resolution dropped in the continuous motion mode of the DBT due to the blur caused by the rotation of the stage and the cutoff frequencies reduced to 3.6 lp/mm and 3.18 lp/mm in the projection view (0º) and reconstructed DBT slices. At high rotational speed in continuous motion mode, the cutoff frequencies in the DBT slices dropped by 17 % to 2.65 lp/mm. Rotational speed of the rotation stage and spatial resolution are interconnected. Hence, reducing the motion blur in the continuous acquisition mode is important to maintain high spatial resolution for diagnostic purposes.
X-ray fluorescence (XRF) is a promising spectroscopic technique to characterize imaging contrast agents with high atomic numbers (Z) such as gold nanoparticles (GNPs) inside small objects. Its utilization for biomedical applications, however, is greatly limited to experimental research due to longer data acquisition time. The objectives of this study are to apply a photon counting detector array for XRF imaging and to determine an optimized XRF data acquisition time, at which the acquired XRF image is of acceptable quality to allow the maximum level of radiation dose reduction. A prototype laboratory XRF imaging configuration consisting of a pencil-beam X-ray and a photon counting detector array (1 × 64 pixels) is employed to acquire the XRF image through exciting the prepared GNP/water solutions. In order to analyze the signal to noise ratio (SNR) improvement versus the increased exposure time, all the XRF photons within the energy range of 63 - 76KeV that include two Kα gold fluorescence peaks are collected for 1s, 2s, 3s, and so on all the way up to 200s. The optimized XRF data acquisition time for imaging different GNP solutions is determined as the moment when the acquired XRF image just reaches a quality with a SNR of 20dB which corresponds to an acceptable image quality.
KEYWORDS: Modulation transfer functions, X-rays, Optical filters, Aluminum, Prototyping, Molybdenum, Phase contrast, Rhodium, Imaging systems, Signal to noise ratio
The objective of this research is to characterize the detective quantum efficiency (DQE) of a high-energy in-line phase contrast prototype operated under different x-ray exposure conditions.
First of all, an imaging prototype was demonstrated based on a high-energy in-line phase contrast system prototype. The DQE of this system is calculated through modulation transfer function (MTF), noise power spectrum (NPS) and input signal to noise ratio under a fixed radiation dose. The radiation dose was estimated by employing a 4-cm-thick BR12 phantom. In this research, the x-ray exposure conditions were modified by not only using different tube voltage but also different prime beam filtration. Aluminum, Molybdenum, Rhodium, and a combined filter were selected to acquire a variety of x-ray energy compositions with 100, 110 and 120 kVp exposures. The resultant curves are compared through the modes of different kVp/same filter and different filter/same kVp.
As a result, the curves obtained under a fixed radiation dose, indicate that the MTF performs similar behavior under different experimental mode; the NPS is majorly affected by the composition of x-ray photon energies; and the overall DQE decreases with the increasing portion of high-energy x-ray photons in the exposure.
The objective of this research is to demonstrate an in-line phase contrast tomosynthesis prototype operated under high x-ray tube voltage, and a phantom study was conducted to characterize the potentials of this system. The prototype is based on an in-line phase contrast system accompanying with digital tomosynthesis imaging mechanism; and the tube voltage is operated at 120 kVp. A phantom study was conducted by using a custom-designed fish bone phantom to demonstrate the ability of this imaging system in edge enhancement and noise suppression. As the result, edge enhancement could be observed on the in-plane slices by plotting and comparing the intensity profiles with DTS images. As employing phase retrieval method onto the original angular projections could dramatically improve the image quality in edge enhancement, 3D imaging box was preliminarily constructed by using reconstructed in-plane slices acquired with PAD phase retrieval. As expected, high-energy in-line phase contrast tomosynthesis imaging system shows its potentials in edge enhancement and noise suppression by introducing phase retrieval method. Dose studies and perfecting photon energies and phantom designs will be our future interest.
Accurate background estimation to isolate the fluorescence signals is an important issue for quantitative X-ray fluorescence (XRF) analysis of gold nanoparticles (GNPs). Though a good estimation can be obtained experimentally through acquiring the background spectrum of water solution, it inevitably leads to unnecessary second exposure in reality. Thus, several numerical methods such as trapezoidal shape estimation, interpolation by polynomial fitting and SNIP (Statistics sensitive Nonlinear Iterative Peak-Clipping) algorithm are proposed to achieve this goal. This paper aims to evaluate the estimation results calculated by these numerical methods through comparing with that acquired using the experimental way, in term of mean squared error (MSE). Four GNP/water solutions with various concentrations from 0.0% to 1.0% by weight are prepared. Then, ten spectra are acquired for each solution for further analysis, under the identical condition of using pencil beam x-ray and single spectrometer. Finally, the experimental and numerical methods are performed on these spectra within the optimally determined energy window and their statistical characteristics are analyzed and compared. These numerical background estimation methods as well as the evaluation methods can be easily extended to analyze the fluorescence signals of other nanoparticle biomarkers such as gadolinium, platinum and Barium in multiple biomedical applications.
The purpose of this study was to determine the Contrast to Noise Ratio (CNR) of the x-ray images taken with the phase contrast imaging mode and compare them with the CNR of the images taken under the conventional mode. For each mode, three images were taken under three exposure conditions of 100 kVp (2.8mAs), 120 kVp (1.9mAs) and 140kVp (1.42mAs). A 1.61cm thick contrast detail phantom was used as an imaging object. For phase contrast, the source to image detector distance (SID) was 182.88 cm and the source to object (SOD) distance was 73.15 cm. The SOD was the same as SID in the conventional imaging mode. A computed radiography (CR) plate was used as a detector and the output CR images were converted to linear form in relation with the incident x-ray exposure. To calculate CNR, an image processing software was used to determine the mean pixel value and the standard deviation of the pixels in the region of interest (ROI) and in the nearby background around ROI. At any given exposure condition investigated in this study, the CNR values for the phase contrast images were better as compared to the corresponding conventional mode images. The superior image quality in terms of CNR is contributed by the phase-shifts resulted contrast, as well as the reduced scatters due to the air gap between the object and the detector.
This research is aimed at studying the advantages of an x-ray phase-contrast tomosynthesis prototype by using
phantoms. A prototype system is assembled with a micro-focus x-ray source, a rotating stage and a computed
radiography detector mounted on an optical rail. A custom designed bubble wrap phantom is used in experiments.
Angular projection images are acquired from -20° to +20° with 2° interval. The in-plane slices are reconstructed. The feature area on the phantom is observed. The prototype system provides an intrinsic way to investigate the potential and imaging quality of a phase-contrast tomosynthesis imaging method. As the result, phase-contrast tomosynthesis imaging method is demonstrated for its advantages in avoiding structure noise and overlapping issues by comparing the results acquired by computed radiography and phase-contrast radiography.
The objectives of this project are to intrinsically and quantitatively investigate the advantages of a phase-contrast (PC)
tomosynthesis prototype in removing the superimposed structure noise and the effects on image qualities by an off-center
shift of the object along the tube-sweep direction.
Experimentally, phantoms are assembled with standard resolution patterns. Phase-contrast tomosynthesis images are
acquired and reconstructed. In order to study the effects of the limited angular projections on the in-plane resolutions, all
the images were reconstructed in the 2×2 binning mode only, as we will study the phase contrast effects elsewhere. The
in-plane slices reconstructed from each of the experiments examined and the in-plane limiting resolutions are determined.
For comparison, the resolution patterns and phantoms are also imaged by single projections. Under single x-ray
projection, with only one resolution pattern, the limiting resolution of the system is 8 lp/mm; with 2 resolution patterns
superimposed, the image of the resolution patterns is blurred for distinguishing line pairs. The PC tomosynthesis in-plane
images show that the limiting resolution of the system is 7 lp/mm. For objects with a shift along the horizontal axis (the
tube-sweep direction) by 0.8 inch, the spatial resolution is degraded to 4 lp/mm and blur occurs.
As is expected, the PC tomosynthesis prototype studied in this project reveals superimposed fine structures of the object;
the effect induced by the object's off-center shift is determined in a quantified way. The in-plane resolution of this
system can be further improved by optimizing the system alignment, and the reconstruction algorithms.
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