{"id":15016,"date":"2021-11-04T09:50:33","date_gmt":"2021-11-04T09:50:33","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/interhospi.com\/?p=15016"},"modified":"2021-11-04T09:50:33","modified_gmt":"2021-11-04T09:50:33","slug":"new-dark-field-x-ray-technology-improves-diagnosis-of-pulmonary-disease","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/interhospi.com\/new-dark-field-x-ray-technology-improves-diagnosis-of-pulmonary-disease\/","title":{"rendered":"New dark-field X-ray technology improves diagnosis of pulmonary disease"},"content":{"rendered":"
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For the first time, researchers at the Technical University of Munich (TUM) have successfully used a new X-ray method for respiratory diagnostics with patients. Dark-field X-rays visualize early changes in the alveolar structure caused by the lung disease COPD and require only one fiftieth of the radiation dose typically applied in X-ray computed tomography. This permits broad medical application in early detection and treatment follow-up of respiratory ailments.<\/p>\n
There are millions of cases in which serious respiratory system illnesses place limitations on quality of life. Every year more than four million people die of serious respiratory ailments worldwide. Partially destroyed alveoli and an over-inflation of the lungs (emphysema) are typical of the life-threatening ailment Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease (COPD).<\/p>\n
However, the fine distinctions between healthy and diseased tissue are barely visible on conventional chest X-rays. Detailed diagnostic information is only available using three-dimensional computed tomography approaches, in which the computer assembles many individual images. Until now there has been no fast and cost-effective option for early detection and follow-up examinations with a low radiation exposure as used in plain chest X-rays.<\/p>\n
A procedure developed at the Technical University of Munich could now fill this gap: dark-field chest X-rays. In the November 1, 2021 issue of The Lancet Digital Health<\/em> a research team led by Franz Pfeiffer, Professor for Biomedical Physics and Director of the Munich Institute of Biomedical Engineering at TUM, present the results of an initial clinical patient study, which used the new X-ray technology for the diagnosis of the lung disease COPD.<\/p>\n Conventional X-ray imaging is based on the attenuation of X-rays on their way through the tissue. Dark-field technology on the other hand use the wave nature of X-ray light, which is discarded in conventional X-ray imaging.<\/p>\n The new method thus uses the physical phenomenon of scattering in a manner similar to the long-known principle of dark-field microscopy with visible light. This allows to visualize the structure of objects that are for the most part transparent. These structures appear in the microscope as bright images on a dark background, which has given the method its name.<\/p>\n \u201cThe X-ray dark-field signal is particularly strong for interfaces between air and tissue,\u201d Prof. Pfeiffer points out. \u201cThis makes it possible for a dark-field X-ray image of the lung to clearly distinguish between intact alveoli, i.e. those filled with air, and regions in which less intact alveoli exist.\u201d<\/p>\nThe wave character of X-rays is the key
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