Aplicación de la técnica de rayos X por contraste de fase para detección de lesiones mamarias

Abstract

We present the acquisition of phase contrast images by free propagation and edge illumination techniques, with the aim of differentiating three types of emulated breast lesions in the CIRS015 phantom: microcalcifications, fibrous structures and tumour masses. This work was carried out in collaboration with Universidad de los Andes in the Research Internship modality. The analysis was performed based on the conventional mammography method, comparing the images with two phase contrast methods, by means of the contrast study and the signal-to-noise ratio (SNR); the images were taken using the Medipix3RX detector. It was found that the contrast in the images was feasibly improved with both phase contrast techniques, however, the signal-to-noise ratio did not present any significant improvement over the conventional technique. The study involves the use of two types of semiconductor sensor for the detector: Silicon and Cadmium Telluride, finding difficulties in recovering the phase signal in the images with the Silicon sensor. Finally, the three techniques are compared analyzing their potential and feasibility of applying the phase contrast technique to the current medical reality.