Affiliations: College of Biomedical Engineering, Capital Medical
University, Beijing 100069, China | Medical Imaging Center, Beijing TongRen Hospital,
Capital Medical University, Beijing 100730, China | Department of Anatomy, Capital Medical University,
Beijing 100069, China | Beijing Synchrotron Radiation Facility, Institute of
High Energy Physics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100049, China | Department of Engineering Physics, Tsinghua
University, Beijing 100084, China
Abstract: As a novel imaging method, X-ray diffraction enhanced imaging (DEI)
has extremely high sensitivity for weakly absorbing biological soft tissues.
Recently, biomedical application research about DEI and computed tomography of
DEI (DEI-CT) has become a hot issue. In this paper, a novel visualization
method of micro biomedical structures is presented, which uses DEI-CT
techniques to study guinea pig cochleae. The acquired DEI images clearly
displayed the spiral structures and inner details of the guinea pig cochleae.
DEI-CT reconstructions were obtained from the peak projection data and
refraction angle projection data of guinea pig cochleae. Based on DEI-CT
reconstructions, we implemented three-dimensional visualization of guinea pig
cochleae. Moreover, visualization of guinea pig cochlea based on color images
of the histological sections was performed for comparison with the results of
DEI-CT. The advantages and limitations of the two methods in visualizing guinea
pig cochleae are also discussed. This study demonstrates that DEI-CT is an
effective method to visualize the biomedical micro-organs and minute tissues
with a good contrast and spatial resolution.
