X-Ray Phase-Contrast
Early detection of cancer and angiography
applications are just two examples that can directly benefit from an
imaging modality with excellent soft-tissue contrast. X-ray grating
interferometry is promising to achieve this while keeping radiation dose
and examination costs low. Existing clinical X-ray systems can be
retrofitted with a set of three gratings to form an interferometer. The
measurement procedure yields three images: X-ray absorption,
differential phase, and dark-field. The vision of phase-contrast
X-ray is that these three complementary signals together enable highly
sensitive tissue contrast for medical diagnosis and interventional
applications.
The X-ray phase contrast group at the Pattern
Recognition Lab develops algorithms for processing these images, and for
the 3-D reconstruction of tomographic acquisitions. We closely
collaborate with the physicist at ECAP, who are maintaining the
experimental setup.