Xray of foot series#

The collimated fan beam of X-rays is prepared by the Silicon monochromator consisting of two perfect silicon crystals. A schematic of the DEI system used for our experimentation at the Xl5A beamline at the NSLS is shown in Fig. 2002), and we provide here only a brief description. The details of DEI technology have been presented previously ( Chapman et al. skin, tendon, ligament, adipose tissue and articular cartilage of the human foot. Here we describe for the first time the X-ray imaging, through DEI, of soft tissues, i.e. Until recently, it was thought that radiography had reached an end-point in terms of imaging for medical purposes. Our intention is not to compare DEI technology with other imaging techniques, such as MRI, ultrasound, and computerized tomographic (CT) scanning, but rather to demonstrate the hitherto undiscovered capabilities of radiography for soft tissue imaging.

Xray of foot series#

The strength of the technology is that it utilizes a series of perfect silicon crystals to provide images with enhanced contrast depending on the extent of X-ray ultra-small-angle scattering and refraction by the object. 2000) for which there is currently no clinical device of comparable intensity and character. 2002).ĭEI uses a synchrotron X-ray source because of its highly collimated X-ray beam ( Chapman et al.

1998) and articular cartilage of human knee joints and the talus of the ankle joint ( Mollenhauer et al. However, a novel X-ray technology, called diffraction enhanced imaging (DEI), carried out at the National Synchrotron Light Source (NSLS) at Brookhaven National Laboratory, has previously been shown to allow visualization of breast tissue ( Chapman et al. Because of their relatively low tissue densities, soft tissues have low X-ray absorptive ability and therefore generally appear as mere shadows in a conventional radiograph of a body region ( Staren, 1980). Historically, soft tissues of the body such as muscle, ligaments, tendons and cartilage have been imaged by techniques other than conventional radiography, such as magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) and ultrasound.