Microbubbles as a contrast agent in grating interferometry mammography: an ex vivo proof-of-mechanism study

European Radiology Experimental

Carolina Arboleda¹  Marco Stampanoni¹  Kristina Lång¹  Konstantins Jefimovs¹  Zhentian Wang¹  Norbert Kuhn²  Sven Prevrhal²  Thomas Koehler²  Bernd David²  Rahel A. Kubik-Huch³  Serafino Forte³ 

[1] 0000 0001 1090 7501, grid.5991.4, Swiss Light Source, ETH Zurich, Paul Scherrer Institute, 5232, Villigen, Switzerland;0000 0001 2156 2780, grid.5801.c, Institute for Biomedical Engineering, University and ETH Zurich, Zurich, Switzerland;0000 0004 0373 4886, grid.418621.8, Philips GmbH Innovative Technologies, Research Laboratories, Philips Research Hamburg, Röntgenstrasse 24-26, 22335, Hamburg, Germany;0000 0004 0508 7512, grid.482962.3, Department of Radiology, Kantonsspital Baden, Im Ergel 1, 5404, Baden, Switzerland;

关键词: Contrast media;    Interferometry;    Mammography;    Microbubbles;    Phantoms (imaging);   

DOI  :  10.1186/s41747-019-0097-2

来源: publisher

【 摘 要 】

Grating interferometry mammography (GIM) is an experimental breast imaging method at the edge of being clinically implemented. Besides attenuation, GIM can measure the refraction and scattering of x-rays resulting in differential phase contrast (DPC) and dark-field (DF) images. In this exploratory study, we assessed the feasibility of using microbubbles as a contrast agent in GIM. Two millilitres of microbubbles and iodine were respectively injected into ex vivo breast phantoms, consisting of fresh chicken breasts. Native and postcontrast images were acquired with a clinically compatible GIM setup, operated at 38 kVp, 14-s acquisition time, and with a dose of 1.3 mGy. The visibility of the contrast agents was analysed in a side-by-side comparison by three radiologists. The contrast-to-noise-ratio (CNR) was calculated for each contrast agent. We found that both contrast agents were judged to be visible by the readers. The mean CNR was 3.1 ± 1.9 for microbubbles in DF and 24.2 ± 6.5 for iodine in attenuation. In conclusion, this is a first proof-of-mechanism study that microbubbles could be used as a contrast agent in clinically compatible GIM, due to their scattering properties, which implies the potential use of a contrast agent with a high safety profile in x-ray-based breast imaging.

【 授权许可】

CC BY