Full field X-ray Scatter Tomography

TL;DR

This paper introduces a novel 3D X-ray Scatter Tomography technique using full-field illumination and simultaneous imaging of transmitted and scattered photons, enabling detailed biological imaging with potential dose reduction.

Contribution

It presents the first implementation of full-field 3D X-ray Scatter Tomography with dual imaging of transmitted and scattered photons, improving image fidelity and opening new possibilities for dose-efficient biological imaging.

Findings

Achieved sufficient scatter tomogram feature fidelity for lung and airway segmentation.

Image contrast in scatter slices approached that of transmission imaging.

Demonstrated potential for dose reduction and enhanced imaging modes in biological studies.

Abstract

In X-ray imaging, photons are transmitted through and absorbed by the subject, but are also scattered in significant quantities. Previous attempts to use scattered photons for biological imaging used pencil or fan beam illumination. Here we present 3D X-ray Scatter Tomography using full-field illumination. Synchrotron imaging experiments were performed of a phantom and the chest of a juvenile rat. Transmitted and scattered photons were simultaneously imaged with separate cameras; a scientific camera directly downstream of the sample stage, and a pixelated detector with a pinhole imaging system placed at 45${}^\circ$ to the beam axis. We obtained scatter tomogram feature fidelity sufficient for segmentation of the lung and major airways in the rat. The image contrast in scatter tomogram slices approached that of transmission imaging, indicating robustness to the amount of multiple scattering present in our case. This opens the possibility of augmenting full-field 2D imaging systems with additional scatter detectors to obtain complementary modes or to improve the fidelity of existing images without additional dose, potentially leading to single-shot or reduced-angle tomography or overall dose reduction for live animal studies.