New X-Ray Technique Images Soft-Tissue Tumors Clearer Than MRI (newatlas.com) 16
Researchers at Tohoku University have developed a new method of adapting X-ray to image soft tissue, "so that its higher resolution can reveal tumors or other problems earlier than other techniques," reports New Atlas. From the report: Elastography is a field of medical imaging that focuses on the stiffness or softness of tissues. Shear waves are sent through the body, and then an imaging technology like ultrasound or MRI is used to watch how they spread. The waves move through stiff tissue faster than they do through soft tissue, and since tumors, lesions and hardened arteries are all stiffer than surrounding tissue, the technique can highlight these signs of disease. X-rays usually work on a different mechanism, but recent research has suggested that they could be applied to elastography too. And if they were, the resulting images would be much higher resolution, able to spot things on the scale of microns instead of millimeters.
And now, X-ray elastography has moved from principle to practice. The Tohoku team has taken the first images using the technique, and shown that it is able to identify the stiffness of different materials. The researchers imaged a polyacrylamide gel, with some samples containing harder particles of zirconium dioxide. Vibrations were then sent through these samples while X-ray images were taken. And sure enough, the X-ray elastography method was able to spot these tiny intruders. After showing that the concept does work, the researchers say that the next steps are to create 3D images, and eventually develop x-ray elastography equipment for medical diagnoses. The research was published in the journal Applied Physics Express.
And now, X-ray elastography has moved from principle to practice. The Tohoku team has taken the first images using the technique, and shown that it is able to identify the stiffness of different materials. The researchers imaged a polyacrylamide gel, with some samples containing harder particles of zirconium dioxide. Vibrations were then sent through these samples while X-ray images were taken. And sure enough, the X-ray elastography method was able to spot these tiny intruders. After showing that the concept does work, the researchers say that the next steps are to create 3D images, and eventually develop x-ray elastography equipment for medical diagnoses. The research was published in the journal Applied Physics Express.
Zirconium dioxide ? (Score:1)
If the higher resolution really works on soft tissue, this could be a game changer. And perhaps, much more affordable than MRI.
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I wouldn't call it a game changer. Elastometry is pretty niche at the best of times, and, as you say, being able to detect ceramic inclusions in a gel isn't exactly impressive.
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Exactly. MRI has millions to create soft tissue contrast and to measure various quantities: relaxation constants, chemical shift, diffusion (tensors), flow, temperature, perfusion, susceptibility etc. It is a universal computational sensing device. That X-ray can also do elastography as shown in one proof-of-principle experiment is is nice, but more or less irrelevant in the overall scheme of things.
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...million ways...
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MRI can go down to that scale as well (Score:2)
The FDA and other agencies have been holding back MRI developments for human use, but micron size elastography without any radiation (unlike X-ray) should be possible with 7T and higher MR field strengths. By extremely cooling the body coil electronics you can get tissue at resolutions equal to 21T MR (weâ(TM)re talking 5 microns) strengths in a 7-9T MRI.
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Safe for cochelar implants? (Score:4, Informative)
I did MRI research on cochlar implant subjects decades ago. You *cannot* use an MRI on the modern systems with the embedded electronics, and especially with the coils wrapped around magnets. You can safely do it on the old systems with a jack that sticks out of your head. But if these people need MRI's for diagnostic reasons, you have to take out the implant. You can snip off the electrodes rather than trying to yank them back out of the cochlea, which for people with Meniere's Disease has probably gotten even more blocked up by bone.
Being able to safely X-ray the brain for more detailed 3D images sounds useful.
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Am I the only one who always thinks ... (Score:1)
... x-ray? You mean gamm rays? Like .. ... Isn't that the very thing that *gives* you cancer in the first place? ;)
radioactivity?
Elastography (Score:1)
W
There's a catch (Score:4, Interesting)
Soft X-rays counter-intuitively have a greater biological impact than hard(er) X-rays at the energy levels we usually talk about for medical diagnostic imaging. Below a certain energy level, instead of mostly flying through your tissue, they get absorbed and deposit their energy.
Why couldn't they use sonar/radar principles? (Score:2)
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They don't return the density of the objects. Just whether or not that an object exists. The return time tells one the distance to the object. It doesn't matter if the particles are hitting steel, plastic, or carbon fibre. If they hit straight on then they are going to be returned.
There are techniques to make things stealth-like such as paint that absorbs the particles and making surfaces that deflect the particles away from the RADAR/SONAR. These just reduce the number of particles returned back and make t