Dark-field chest x-ray takes step forward

German developers of dark-field chest x-ray appear to have overcome a technical limitation of the technology – namely, adjusting for photon scattering caused by interferometers used in the experimental system. This scattering is picked up by the system’s detector (so-called “detector cross talk”) and leads to unwanted artifacts on patient chest x-rays, noted study lead and doctoral candidate Theresa Urban, of the Technical University of Munich, and colleagues. Ultimately, the group described a method to correct the phenomenon to produce better images. “With the corrections presented here … the obtained dark-field signal is due to the microstructure of the tissue, and differences between the dark-field signal of different patients can be attributed to their lung condition rather than scatter or crosstalk artifacts,” the group wrote. The article was published March 7 in IEEE Transactions on Medical Imaging. Initial results from currently ongoing clinical studies suggest that dark-field chest x-ray can be useful for detecting and quantification of pulmonary emphysema, and for assessing COVID-19 pneumonia, the authors wrote. The technology uses three interferometers in the path of an x-ray beam from a conventional system to focus photons on the lung’s alveoli, or microscopic structures located at the end of the respiratory tree. Yet photon scattering and detector cross talk cause artifacts in the dark-field x-ray image, which impairs image appearance and preve...
Source: AuntMinnie.com Headlines - Category: Radiology Authors: Tags: Subspecialties Digital X-Ray Chest Radiology Source Type: news