X Ray Excels.

The article discusses a new X-ray imaging technique. Researchers have long known that phase-contrast X-ray imaging can yield stunning pictures of soft tissue. Imaging soft tissue in detail has required enormous particle accelerators that span several city blocks. A new method may soon bring this valuable diagnostic capability into hospital settings. There, researchers say, it will provide physicians with unprecedented power to spot tumors, clogged arteries, and other soft-tissue problems. "Phase-sensitive X-ray imaging can produce images that show much more detail in tissue structure, but none of the techniques could be used efficiently in a hospital-based setup with small X-ray sources," says Franz Pfeiffer of the Paul Scherrer Institute in Villigen, Switzerland. Now, his team reports an advance that it says will enable radiologists to perform phase-contrast imaging using conventional hospital X-ray machines. The team describes its innovation in the Aug. 8 Optics Express, an online journal.