Compact energy dispersive x-ray microdiffractometer for diagnosis of neoplastic tissues

SOSA, C.; MALEZAN, A.; FALCHINI, G.; ESCUDERO, R.; POLETTI, M.; PÉREZ R. D.

Beijing

Simposio; 13th International Symposium on Radiation Physics; 2015

Chinese Academy of Science

X-ray diffraction (XRD) and medical imaging techniques can be successfully combined to provide a powerful technique able to differentiate tissues with similar x-ray attenuation characteristic. Several experiments have been show that XRD analysis discriminates between glandular, adipose and neoplastic tissues becoming in a helpful tool for radiodiagnosis. For this application, the energy dispersive configuration is useful to reduce the acquisition time and simplify the detection system. These advantages are consequence of the employment of solid state detectors in the configuration which perform simultaneous energy scanning of the scattering beam avoiding complex mechanical motions. In the energy dispersive configuration, a polychromatic excitation beam with low divergence is required to satisfy the Bragg Law. Usually it is obtained by means of the alignment of two small collimators with a large distance between them in the order of several tens of centimeters. In the present work, we showed that the employment of capillary optic in the excitation channel reduces this distance to a few centimeters giving rise to a compact setup. In addition, the lens also reduces the excitation area keeping a high photon flux over the sample which allows performing x-ray microdiffraction analysis (MXRD). In this work, the implementation of MXRD with capillary optics for tissue analysis is presented. It involves specific solutions for the experimental setup and data analysis with special emphasis in the influence of the capillary optic. The results obtained with our spectrometer for phantoms and some specific biological tissues will be shown. Preliminary results for a diagnosis model of breast cancer with the developed spectrometer are presented as well.