Prototype represents a step toward enhanced soft-tissue tomography

Ready for preclinical research - a novel CT scanner with innovative x-ray technology

Conventional x-ray imaging is based on recording the intensity of x-rays behind the imaged object or patient. This method has limitations in medical imaging, especially for examining tissues such as cancer and cartilage, which are hardly visible in conventional images. Novel x-ray technology does not rely solely on the attenuation of x-ray intensity, but also takes advantage of the slightly deflected propagation direction of x-rays. In order to make this effect visible in the so-called phase image, grating-based interferometry is employed, which requires highly precise alignment of x-ray optical components.

Franz Pfeiffer, TUM professor for biomedical physics and head of the research team explains: “For several years we have worked on novel x-ray technology for improved diagnosis in medical imaging. Up until now, we could only investigate excised tissue on bench-top setups in our labs. But now, we took the step of implementing this technology in an in vivo micro-CT scanner. With this step we bring the technology much closer to the hospital, and we hope to make it available for patients in the future.”

In a close collaboration with an industrial partner (Bruker microCT / Skyscan), supplied with high-precision x-ray optical gratings from the Karlsruhe Institute of Technology, and with financial support from the European Research Council, the researchers built two prototype scanners. One remains at the industrial partner's site in Belgium, and the other is set up in the Institute of Medical Engineering on TUM's Garching Research Center campus. “The main challenge in implementing the novel x-ray technology in a micro-CT scanner was mechanical stability and resulting disturbances in the x-ray phase images," says TUM doctoral candidate Arne Tapfer, the first author of the PNAS study. "We were able to correct these disturbances with a software algorithm and prove that the correction routine performs accurately.” The scientists demonstrated this by quantitatively evaluating the scan of a "phantom" of chemical fluids. Biological tissue was used to assess the potential for biomedical imaging; the novel phase images showed improved visibility of the different tissue components.

"With this new technology we have opened the way for a new generation of preclinical CT scanners," asserts Alexander Sasov, head of the industry partner Bruker microCT — which brought to the project long-standing experience engineering microCT scanners for a wide range of applications.

This research was supported by the German Research Foundation (DFG) through the Cluster of Excellence Munich Center for Advanced Photonics (MAP), and by the European Research Council (FP7, Starting Grant No. 240142).

Original publication:
Experimental results from a preclinical x-ray phase-contrast CT scanner. Arne Tapfer, Martin Bech, Astrid Velroyen, Jan Meiser, Jürgen Mohr, Marco Walter, Joachim Schulz, Bart Pauwels, Peter Bruyndonckx, Xuan Liu, Alexander Sasov, and Franz Pfeiffer. PNAS Early Edition for the week of Sept. 10, 2012.

Cooperation partners:
Bruker microCT / Skyscan (www.bruker-microct.com)
Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (www.kit.edu)

Contact:
Prof. Franz Pfeiffer
Technische Universität München
Dept. of Physics and Institute of Medical Engineering
Tel.: +49 89 289 12552
Fax.: +49 89 289 12548
E-Mail:  franz.pfeifferspam prevention@ph.tum.de
Web: http://www.e17.ph.tum.de/


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