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Croughan MK, Paganin DM, Alloo SJ, Ahlers JN, How YY, Harker SA, Morgan KS. Correcting directional dark field x-ray imaging artefacts using position dependent image deblurring and attenuation removal. Sci Rep 2024; 14:17807. [PMID: 39090344 PMCID: PMC11294358 DOI: 10.1038/s41598-024-68659-2] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 04/26/2024] [Accepted: 07/26/2024] [Indexed: 08/04/2024] Open
Abstract
In recent years, a novel x-ray imaging modality has emerged that reveals unresolved sample microstructure via a "dark-field image", which provides complementary information to conventional "bright-field" images, such as attenuation and phase-contrast modalities. This x-ray dark-field signal is produced by unresolved microstructures scattering the x-ray beam resulting in localised image blur. Dark-field retrieval techniques extract this blur to reconstruct a dark-field image. Unfortunately, the presence of non-dark-field blur such as source-size blur or the detector point-spread-function can affect the dark-field retrieval as they also blur the experimental image. In addition, dark-field images can be degraded by the artefacts induced by large intensity gradients from attenuation and propagation-based phase contrast, particularly around sample edges. By measuring any non-dark-field blurring across the image plane and removing it from experimental images, as well as removing attenuation and propagation-based phase contrast, we show that a directional dark-field image can be retrieved with fewer artefacts and more consistent quantitative measures. We present the details of these corrections and provide "before and after" directional dark-field images of samples imaged at a synchrotron source. This paper utilises single-grid directional dark-field imaging, but these corrections have the potential to be broadly applied to other x-ray imaging techniques.
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Affiliation(s)
- Michelle K Croughan
- Monash University, School of Physics and Astronomy, Melbourne, 3800, Australia.
| | - David M Paganin
- Monash University, School of Physics and Astronomy, Melbourne, 3800, Australia
| | - Samantha J Alloo
- Monash University, School of Physics and Astronomy, Melbourne, 3800, Australia
- University of Canterbury, School of Physical and Chemical Sciences, Christchurch, 8041, New Zealand
| | - Jannis N Ahlers
- Monash University, School of Physics and Astronomy, Melbourne, 3800, Australia
| | - Ying Ying How
- Monash University, School of Physics and Astronomy, Melbourne, 3800, Australia
| | | | - Kaye S Morgan
- Monash University, School of Physics and Astronomy, Melbourne, 3800, Australia
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Smith R, Morgan K, McCarron A, Cmielewski P, Reyne N, Parsons D, Donnelley M. Ultra-fast in vivodirectional dark-field x-ray imaging for visualising magnetic control of particles for airway gene delivery. Phys Med Biol 2024; 69:105025. [PMID: 38640914 DOI: 10.1088/1361-6560/ad40f5] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 02/09/2024] [Accepted: 04/19/2024] [Indexed: 04/21/2024]
Abstract
Objective.Magnetic nanoparticles can be used as a targeted delivery vehicle for genetic therapies. Understanding how they can be manipulated within the complex environment of live airways is key to their application to cystic fibrosis and other respiratory diseases.Approach.Dark-field x-ray imaging provides sensitivity to scattering information, and allows the presence of structures smaller than the detector pixel size to be detected. In this study, ultra-fast directional dark-field synchrotron x-ray imaging was utlilised to understand how magnetic nanoparticles move within a live, anaesthetised, rat airway under the influence of static and moving magnetic fields.Main results.Magnetic nanoparticles emerging from an indwelling tracheal cannula were detectable during delivery, with dark-field imaging increasing the signal-to-noise ratio of this event by 3.5 times compared to the x-ray transmission signal. Particle movement as well as particle retention was evident. Dynamic magnetic fields could manipulate the magnetic particlesin situ. Significance.This is the first evidence of the effectiveness ofin vivodark-field imaging operating at these spatial and temporal resolutions, used to detect magnetic nanoparticles. These findings provide the basis for further development toward the effective use of magnetic nanoparticles, and advance their potential as an effective delivery vehicle for genetic agents in the airways of live organisms.
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Affiliation(s)
- Ronan Smith
- Adelaide Medical School, University of Adelaide, North Terrace, Adelaide, Australia
- Women's and Children's Hospital, King William Road, Adelaide, Australia
- Robinson Research Institute, University of Adelaide, King William Road, Adelaide, Australia
| | - Kaye Morgan
- Department of Physics, Monash University, Wellington Road, Melbourne, Australia
| | - Alexandra McCarron
- Adelaide Medical School, University of Adelaide, North Terrace, Adelaide, Australia
- Women's and Children's Hospital, King William Road, Adelaide, Australia
- Robinson Research Institute, University of Adelaide, King William Road, Adelaide, Australia
| | - Patricia Cmielewski
- Adelaide Medical School, University of Adelaide, North Terrace, Adelaide, Australia
- Women's and Children's Hospital, King William Road, Adelaide, Australia
- Robinson Research Institute, University of Adelaide, King William Road, Adelaide, Australia
| | - Nicole Reyne
- Adelaide Medical School, University of Adelaide, North Terrace, Adelaide, Australia
- Women's and Children's Hospital, King William Road, Adelaide, Australia
- Robinson Research Institute, University of Adelaide, King William Road, Adelaide, Australia
| | - David Parsons
- Adelaide Medical School, University of Adelaide, North Terrace, Adelaide, Australia
- Women's and Children's Hospital, King William Road, Adelaide, Australia
- Robinson Research Institute, University of Adelaide, King William Road, Adelaide, Australia
| | - Martin Donnelley
- Adelaide Medical School, University of Adelaide, North Terrace, Adelaide, Australia
- Women's and Children's Hospital, King William Road, Adelaide, Australia
- Robinson Research Institute, University of Adelaide, King William Road, Adelaide, Australia
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Magnin C, Quénot L, Bohic S, Mihai Cenda D, Fernández Martínez M, Lantz B, Faure B, Brun E. Dark-field and directional dark-field on low-coherence x ray sources with random mask modulations: validation with SAXS anisotropy measurements. OPTICS LETTERS 2023; 48:5839-5842. [PMID: 37966732 DOI: 10.1364/ol.501716] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 08/01/2023] [Accepted: 10/15/2023] [Indexed: 11/16/2023]
Abstract
Phase-contrast imaging, dark-field, and directional dark-field imaging are recent x ray imaging modalities that have been demonstrated to reveal different information and contrast from those provided by conventional x ray imaging. Access to these new types of images is currently limited because the acquisitions require coherent sources such as synchrotron radiation or complicated optical setups. This Letter demonstrates the possibility of efficiently performing phase-contrast, dark-field, and directional dark-field imaging on a low-coherence laboratory system equipped with a conventional x ray tube, using a simple, fast, and robust single-mask technique.
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How YY, Paganin DM, Morgan KS. On the quantification of sample microstructure using single-exposure x-ray dark-field imaging via a single-grid setup. Sci Rep 2023; 13:11001. [PMID: 37419926 PMCID: PMC10329004 DOI: 10.1038/s41598-023-37334-3] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 12/01/2022] [Accepted: 06/20/2023] [Indexed: 07/09/2023] Open
Abstract
The size of the smallest detectable sample feature in an x-ray imaging system is usually restricted by the spatial resolution of the system. This limitation can now be overcome using the diffusive dark-field signal, which is generated by unresolved phase effects or the ultra-small-angle x-ray scattering from unresolved sample microstructures. A quantitative measure of this dark-field signal can be useful in revealing the microstructure size or material for medical diagnosis, security screening and materials science. Recently, we derived a new method to quantify the diffusive dark-field signal in terms of a scattering angle using a single-exposure grid-based approach. In this manuscript, we look at the problem of quantifying the sample microstructure size from this single-exposure dark-field signal. We do this by quantifying the diffusive dark-field signal produced by 5 different sizes of polystyrene microspheres, ranging from 1.0 to 10.8 µm, to investigate how the strength of the extracted dark-field signal changes with the sample microstructure size, [Formula: see text]. We also explore the feasibility of performing single-exposure dark-field imaging with a simple equation for the optimal propagation distance, given microstructure with a specific size and thickness, and show consistency between this model and experimental data. Our theoretical model predicts that the dark-field scattering angle is inversely proportional to [Formula: see text], which is also consistent with our experimental data.
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Affiliation(s)
- Ying Ying How
- School of Physics and Astronomy, Monash University, Clayton, VIC, 3800, Australia.
| | - David M Paganin
- School of Physics and Astronomy, Monash University, Clayton, VIC, 3800, Australia
| | - Kaye S Morgan
- School of Physics and Astronomy, Monash University, Clayton, VIC, 3800, Australia
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Alloo SJ, Morgan KS, Paganin DM, Pavlov KM. Multimodal intrinsic speckle-tracking (MIST) to extract images of rapidly-varying diffuse X-ray dark-field. Sci Rep 2023; 13:5424. [PMID: 37012270 PMCID: PMC10070351 DOI: 10.1038/s41598-023-31574-z] [Citation(s) in RCA: 2] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 12/22/2022] [Accepted: 03/14/2023] [Indexed: 04/05/2023] Open
Abstract
Speckle-based phase-contrast X-ray imaging (SB-PCXI) can reconstruct high-resolution images of weakly-attenuating materials that would otherwise be indistinguishable in conventional attenuation-based X-ray imaging. The experimental setup of SB-PCXI requires only a sufficiently coherent X-ray source and spatially random mask, positioned between the source and detector. The technique can extract sample information at length scales smaller than the imaging system's spatial resolution; this enables multimodal signal reconstruction. "Multimodal Intrinsic Speckle-Tracking" (MIST) is a rapid and deterministic formalism derived from the paraxial-optics form of the Fokker-Planck equation. MIST simultaneously extracts attenuation, refraction, and small-angle scattering (diffusive dark-field) signals from a sample and is more computationally efficient compared to alternative speckle-tracking approaches. Hitherto, variants of MIST have assumed the diffusive dark-field signal to be spatially slowly varying. Although successful, these approaches have been unable to well-describe unresolved sample microstructure whose statistical form is not spatially slowly varying. Here, we extend the MIST formalism such that this restriction is removed, in terms of a sample's rotationally-isotropic diffusive dark-field signal. We reconstruct multimodal signals of two samples, each with distinct X-ray attenuation and scattering properties. The reconstructed diffusive dark-field signals have superior image quality-as measured by the naturalness image quality evaluator, signal-to-noise ratio, and azimuthally averaged power-spectrum-compared to our previous approaches which assume the diffusive dark-field to be a slowly varying function of transverse position. Our generalisation may assist increased adoption of SB-PCXI in applications such as engineering and biomedical disciplines, forestry, and palaeontology, and is anticipated to aid the development of speckle-based diffusive dark-field tensor tomography.
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Affiliation(s)
- Samantha J Alloo
- School of Physical and Chemical Sciences, University of Canterbury, Christchurch, New Zealand.
| | - Kaye S Morgan
- School of Physics and Astronomy, Monash University, Clayton, VIC, Australia
| | - David M Paganin
- School of Physics and Astronomy, Monash University, Clayton, VIC, Australia
| | - Konstantin M Pavlov
- School of Physical and Chemical Sciences, University of Canterbury, Christchurch, New Zealand
- School of Physics and Astronomy, Monash University, Clayton, VIC, Australia
- School of Science and Technology, University of New England, Armidale, NSW, Australia
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Croughan MK, How YY, Pennings A, Morgan KS. Directional dark-field retrieval with single-grid x-ray imaging. OPTICS EXPRESS 2023; 31:11578-11597. [PMID: 37155790 DOI: 10.1364/oe.480031] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 05/10/2023]
Abstract
Directional dark-field imaging is an emerging x-ray modality that is sensitive to unresolved anisotropic scattering from sub-pixel sample microstructures. A single-grid imaging setup can be used to capture dark-field images by looking at changes in a grid pattern projected upon the sample. By creating analytical models for the experiment, we have developed a single-grid directional dark-field retrieval algorithm that can extract dark-field parameters such as the dominant scattering direction, and the semi-major and -minor scattering angles. We show that this method is effective even in the presence of high image noise, allowing for low-dose and time-sequence imaging.
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