X-ray diffraction CT of excised breast tissue sections: first results from Elettra

The scattering properties of breast tissue have been suggested as a diagnostic tool in the early detection of breast cancer. To aid in the development of a clinical imaging system based upon these properties, a series of breast tissue samples have been subjected to diffraction microCT using the SYRMEP beamline at Elettra, Italy. Using 18 keV photons, both transmission and diffraction CT data sets were collected using a specially designed microCT system. This system was based around a finely collimated, X-ray sensitive L3Vision CCD camera and a simple rotary stage controlled using Lab View software. The images were reconstructed using routines developed in IDL. This paper presents both transmission and diffraction CT images of three samples. The samples were excised breast tissue sections known to contain either tumour, normal tissue adjacent to the tumour or a mixture of each. The results demonstrate that diffraction microCT can be used to evaluate the structure of breast tissue tumours. Registration of the transmission and diffraction CT images demonstrated that both techniques showed the same principle features in the sample and allowed the main components to be identified. However, the diffraction images demonstrated an average increase in image contrast over the transmission images. Further improvements in the collimator design used in the experiments will need to be made if detailed structure is to be seen.