NUCLEAR INSTRUMENTS & METHODS IN PHYSICS RESEARCH. SECTION A, ACCELERATORS, SPECTROMETERS, DETECTORS AND ASSOCIATED EQUIPMENT
Abstract
In the past years several successful experimental studies have proven the suitability of synchrotron light in the field of medical radiology and in diagnostic medical imaging. To be mentioned and reviewed in the following are transvenous coronary angiography with synchrotron radiation, bronchography, single- or multi-energy tomography and synchrotron radiation-based mammography. Amongst those the most demanding application is X-ray mammography. Here, a dedicated system has to fulfil the demanding requirements on the source and the X-ray detector. Synchrotron radiation-based mammography, which enables improved image quality maintaining a low dose level, takes advantage of the tunable monochromatic energy and of the peculiar laminar geometry of the beam. In addition, further improvements can be achieved with the development of novel detectors for full-field digital mammography in order to overcome the intrinsic limitations of the conventional screen-film systems. Encouraging results in digital mammography have been obtained at the medical beamline of the synchrotron radiation facility ELETTRA, Trieste. Besides, the high degree of the spatial coherence of the synchrotron source allows new imaging modalities based on phase contrast effects that produce superior radiographs featuring highly enhanced contrast with a low delivered dose.
