Study of effective atomic number of breast tissues determined using the elastic to inelastic scattering ratio

In this work we have measured Compton and Rayleigh scattering radiation from normal (adipose and fibroglandular), benign (fibroadenoma) and malignant (ductal carcinoma) breast tissues using a monoenergetic beam of 17.44 keV and a scattering angle of 90° (x=0.99 Å−1). A practical method using the area of Rayleigh and Compton scattering was used for determining the effective atomic number (Zeff) of the samples, being validated through measurements of several reference materials. The results show that there are differences in the distributions of Zeff of breast tissues, which are mainly related to the elemental composition of carbon (Z=6) and oxygen (Z=8) of each tissue type. The results suggest that is possible to use the method to characterize the breast tissues permitting study histological features of the breast tissues related to their elemental composition.