The prevalence of kidney stones has significantly risen among the elderly population in recent decades, with some countries experiencing rates approaching 15%. Due to high recurrence rates, analyzing stone composition is essential for recurrence prevention. Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FT-IR) and conventional x-ray diffractometry (XRD) are used for this purpose, however, both methods are labor-intensive and require skilled operators, as stones need careful dissection and grinding. Many kidney stones have heterogeneous compositions, and even with spectroscopic analyses, error rates remain high. Despite improvements, challenges in stone sampling and tiny material amounts can still lead to inaccuracies. This prompts the question of how to better manage patients and potentially enhance recurrence prevention strategies despite the shift toward spectroscopic techniques in analytical labs. In this work, we demonstrate the potential of an in-house grating-based high-resolution x-ray phase-contrast μ-CT imaging system in characterizing kidney stones and their compositional analysis. Employing the reported compact benchtop x-ray phase-contrast μ-CT imaging system facilitates stone identification and analysis using additional quantitative data—phase and scattering—obtained from the emerging x-ray phase-contrast imaging system. Having the three sets of images—transmission, phase, and scattering—could potentially pave the way for an accurate and faster stone compositional analysis with clinical values in studying the pathophysiological mechanisms of kidney stone disease that could help improve the recurrence prevention rates.
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