Thickness Measurements from Single X-ray Phase-contrast Speckle Projection

TL;DR

This paper introduces a novel one-shot method for measuring the thickness of sponge-like structures using X-ray phase-contrast imaging, leveraging speckle pattern contrast to infer depth information from a single projection.

Contribution

The method uniquely relates speckle contrast to structure thickness through a natural logarithm equation, enabling depth measurement from a single phase-contrast image.

Findings

Successful preliminary biological experiments demonstrated potential for in vivo lung tumor assessment.

The method accurately correlates speckle contrast with structure thickness.

It offers a rapid, non-invasive way to measure internal structures in biological tissues.

Abstract

We propose a one-shot thickness measurement method for sponge-like structures using a propagation-based X-ray phase-contrast imaging (P-PCI) method. In P-PCI, the air-material interface refracts the incident X-ray. Refracted many times along their paths by such a structure, incident X-rays propagate randomly within a small divergent angle range, resulting in a speckle pattern in the captured image. We found structure thickness and contrast of a phase-contrast projection are directly related in images. This relationship can be described by a natural logarithm equation. Thus, from the one phase-contrast view, depth information can be retrieved from its contrast. Our preliminary biological experiments indicate promise in its application to measurements requiring in vivo and ongoing assessment of lung tumor progression.