Synchrotron radiation based analyzer-free dual-phase dark-field lung imaging approach for radiography and CT
Lung diseases such as chronic obstructive pulmonary disease are a major health burden to society for which early detection plays a crucial role for treatment success. For detection, as well as diagnosis and serial evaluation, imaging plays a major role, but lung diseases are often still diagnosed in progressed states for which effective causal therapies do not presently exist. Recently, dark-field lung imaging has been introduced as a promising technique for early stage detection of alterations in lung micro-structures. This work presents an analyzer-free, full-scale lung imaging system based on a dual-phase interferometer, which allows tuning and direct resolution of grating induced intensity fringes. It provides the classical absorption chest image with additional dark-field information without significant attenuation of the patient-exposed photon-flux or the cost of large area absorption gratings. The detailed system achieves a dark-field sensitivity adequate for lung imaging, governed by system autocorrelation lengths of up to 0.6 [Formula: see text]. The computed tomography (CT) reconstructions show further evidence of the emergence of the dark-field in the parenchyma.
Authors
- Marco Stampanoni (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-7486-6681)
- Lucia Romano (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-7696-7643)
- Lorenzo D’Amico (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-0299-3440)
- Alexandre Pereira (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-7243-4807)
- Simon Spindler
- Konstantins Jefimovs (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-1888-0777)
- Goran Lovrić (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-0833-4043)
- Caori Organista
- Christian Dullin (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-4297-8077)
- D. Josell (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-4273-1923)
- Elena Longo (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-5035-7353)
- Marie‐Christine Zdora (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-6953-6709)
- Nicola Sodini
- Giuliana Tromba (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-1176-9555)
- Ginevra Lautizi (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-4686-1343)
- Adriano Contillo (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-6563-2330)
- M. Rawlik (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-1232-4497)
Institutions
- University of Trieste (IT)
- Paul Scherrer Institute (CH)
- Elettra-Sincrotrone Trieste S.C.p.A. (IT)
- ETH Zurich (CH)
- Institute for Biomedical Engineering (CH)
- Information Technology Laboratory (US)
- NIST Center for Neutron Research (US)
- University of Göttingen (DE)
Publication Details
- Journal
- Scientific Reports
- Published
- 2025-11-04
- DOI
- https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-025-22355-x
- Primary Topic
- Advanced X-ray Imaging Techniques
- Type
- article
- Field-Weighted Citation Impact
- 0.00
Funders
- Schweizerischer Nationalfonds zur Förderung der Wissenschaftlichen Forschung
- Promedica Stiftung
- National Institute of Standards and Technology