Synchrotron biomedical applications using X-ray diffraction tomography

This work reports the feasibility of a nondestructive synchrotron radiation X-ray diffraction imaging technique. The coherent scattering properties of different tissue (water, Lucite, nylon and polystyrene) and bone (hydroxyapatite) substitute materials were evaluated. Furthermore, diffraction patterns of some polycrystalline solids (lead, platinum, dysprosium and silicon) were studied due to industrial and environmental human exposure to these metals. The X-ray diffraction measurements were carried out at 11.101 keV and the diffracted beam was detected by a fast scintillation detector. The obtained diffraction patterns form the basis of a selective tomography technique. Preliminary images are presented. The results encourage us to examine further the application of the two-dimensional selective method to biomedical imaging.