A diverse team of researchers has published the first images of breast cancer tissue using a new radiography method that may prove superior to mammography for detecting tumors.
The new technology, called diffraction enhancing imaging (DEI), uses a silicon crystal placed in the x-ray beam between the imaging medium and the object being studied to diffract x-ray wavelength. In DEI, two images are taken—one similar to a standard x-ray and one in which the x-ray angle deviates slightly. Both images are processed to produce one picture that researchers say is more sensitive than conventional radiography in revealing features that are diagnostic of cancer.
In the March issue of Radiology, researchers from several institutions, including Brookhaven National Laboratory, the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, and a European synchrotron facility in Grenoble, France, published images of seven excised malignant breast tumor specimens taken with DEI and with . . . [Full Text of this Article]
