Synchrotron radiation based analyzer-free dual-phase dark-field lung imaging approach for radiography and CT

Lung diseases such as chronic obstructive pulmonary disease are a major health burden to society for which early detection plays a crucial role for treatment success. For detection, as well as diagnosis and serial evaluation, imaging plays a major role, but lung diseases are often still diagnosed in progressed states for which effective causal therapies do not presently exist. Recently, dark-field lung imaging has been introduced as a promising technique for early stage detection of alterations in lung micro-structures. This work presents an analyzer-free, full-scale lung imaging system based on a dual-phase interferometer, which allows tuning and direct resolution of grating induced intensity fringes. It provides the classical absorption chest image with additional dark-field information without significant attenuation of the patient-exposed photon-flux or the cost of large area absorption gratings. The detailed system achieves a dark-field sensitivity adequate for lung imaging, governed by system autocorrelation lengths of up to 0.6 [Formula: see text]. The computed tomography (CT) reconstructions show further evidence of the emergence of the dark-field in the parenchyma.