Analysis Of A Deconvolution-Based Information Retrieval Algorithm In X-Ray Grating-Based Phase-Contrast Imaging

Grating-based X-ray phase-contrast imaging is a promising imaging modality to increase soft tissue contrast in comparison to conventional attenuation-based radiography. Complementary and otherwise inaccessible information is provided by the dark-field image, which shows the sub-pixel size granularity of the measured object. This could especially turn out to be useful in mammography, where tumourous tissue is connected with the presence of supertiny microcalcifications. In addition to the well-established image reconstruction process, an analysis method was introduced by Modregger,(1) which is based on deconvolution of the underlying scattering distribution within a single pixel revealing information about the sample. Subsequently, the different contrast modalities can be calculated with the scattering distribution. The method already proved to deliver additional information in the higher moments of the scattering distribution and possibly reaches better image quality with respect to an increased contrast-to-noise ratio. Several measurements were carried out using melamine foams as phantoms. We analysed the dependency of the deconvolution-based method with respect to the dark-field image on different parameters such as dose, number of iterations of the iterative deconvolution-algorithm and dark-field signal. A disagreement was found in the reconstructed dark-field values between the FFT method and the iterative method. Usage of the resulting characteristics might be helpful in future applications.