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Technical notes| Volume 31, ISSUE 2, P192-198, March 2015

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Synchrotron based planar imaging and digital tomosynthesis of breast and biopsy phantoms using a CMOS active pixel sensor

Published:December 11, 2014DOI:https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ejmp.2014.11.003

      Highlights

      • CMOS APS flat panel detector successfully used for detection of phase contrast effects.
      • Higher image contrast in synchrotron planar and TS images compared to conventional mammography and TS.
      • Detail visibility enhanced by the edge enhancement caused by the FSP phase contrast.

      Abstract

      The SYRMEP (SYnchrotron Radiation for MEdical Physics) beamline at Elettra is performing the first mammography study on human patients using free-space propagation phase contrast imaging. The stricter spatial resolution requirements of this method currently force the use of conventional films or specialized computed radiography (CR) systems. This also prevents the implementation of three-dimensional (3D) approaches. This paper explores the use of an X-ray detector based on complementary metal-oxide-semiconductor (CMOS) active pixel sensor (APS) technology as a possible alternative, for acquisitions both in planar and tomosynthesis geometry.
      Results indicate higher quality of the images acquired with the synchrotron set-up in both geometries. This improvement can be partly ascribed to the use of parallel, collimated and monochromatic synchrotron radiation (resulting in scatter rejection, no penumbra-induced blurring and optimized X-ray energy), and partly to phase contrast effects. Even though the pixel size of the used detector is still too large – and thus suboptimal – for free-space propagation phase contrast imaging, a degree of phase-induced edge enhancement can clearly be observed in the images.

      Keywords

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