Medical Physics Research Today is a free monthly online journal that collates and summarizes the latest research about Medical Physics, including details on medicine, radiotherapy, biomechanics, medical imaging.

Evaluation of x-ray diffraction enhanced imaging in the diagnosis of breast cancer.

Liu C, Yan X, Zhang X, Yang W, Peng W, Shi D, Zhu P, Huang W, Yuan Q

Synchrotron Radiation Research Center, Physics Department, Surface Physics Laboratory (National Key Laboratory), and Cancer Hospital, Medical Center of Fudan University, Shanghai 200433, People's Republic of China.

The significance of the x-ray diffraction enhanced imaging (DEI) technique in the diagnosis of breast cancer and its feasibility in clinical medical imaging are evaluated. Different massive specimens including normal breast tissues, benign breast tumour tissues and malignant breast tumour tissues are imaged with the DEI method. The images are recorded respectively by CCD or x-ray film at different positions of the rocking curve and processed with a pixel-by-pixel algorithm. The characteristics of the DEI images about the normal and diseased tissues are compared. The rocking curves of a double-crystal diffractometer with various tissues are also studied. The differences in DEI images and their rocking curves are evaluated for early diagnosis of breast cancers.

Published 4 January 2007 in Phys Med Biol, 52(2): 419-27.
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