Quantitative imaging of the microbubble concentrations by using an in-line phase contrast tomosynthesis prototype: a preliminary phantom study

The purpose of this study is to demonstrate the feasibility of using a high-energy in-line phase contrast tomosynthesis system to quantitatively imaging microbubbles in a tissue simulating phantom under a limited radiation dose. The imaging system used in the investigation was a bench top in-line phase contrast tomosynthesis prototype operated under 120 kVp tube voltage and 0.5 mA tube current. A prime beam filter made of 2.3 mm Cu, 0.8 mm Pb and 1.0 mm Al was employed to obtain as large as possible portion of x-ray photon energy higher than 60 keV. The tissue simulating phantom was built by three acrylic slabs and a wax slab to mimic a 40 mm thick compressed breast. There were two tiny-sized structures with average 1 mm depth engraved on the two different layers. The microbubble suspensions with different concentrations were injected into those tiny structures. The inline phase contrast angular projections acquired were used to reconstruct the in-plane slices of the tiny structures on different layers. The CNRs vs microbubble concentrations were investigated. As the result, the microbubble suspensions were clearly visible, showing higher CNR when compared with the areas with no microbubble. Furthermore, a monotonously increasing relation between CNRs and microbubble concentrations was observed after calculating the area CNR of the phase contrast tomosynthesis slices.