A physico-mathematical formulation based on ray equation for reconstructing refraction-based 3-D image of soft tissue

Abstract

Refraction-contrast computed tomography (CT) can image biological soft tissues and soft materials at a high contrast, which cannot be clearly depicted by contemporary CT based on absorption contrast. It reconstructs a distribution of refractive index from projections, whose data each is an angular deviation from incident direction due to refraction by an object, and is acquired by imaging methods using an angular analyzer, e.g., DEI (diffraction enhance imaging), or DFI (dark field imaging). First, a reconstruction algorithm for refraction-contrast CT is derived from the ray equation of a fundamental equation describing refraction phenomena in geometrical optics. Then, in order to demonstrate its efficacy, we performed imaging experiment using DFI-CT imaging system. A reconstructed image of human breast cancer tissue is presented. © 2013 IOP Publishing Ltd and Sissa Medialab srl.