Basic research on the medical applications of neutron imaging

Photography of a sliced bio-tissue, computerized tomography (CT) of animal bone and phantom experiments for a contrast medium are carried on as a basic research for medical applications of neutron radiography. Thermal and cold neutron radiography apparatuses are installed to take two- and three- dimensional imaging for various bio-samples at a guide hole of JRR-3M reactor room in JAERI. Photographs of a sliced rabbit hepatic cancer (∼2 mm thickness) are taken with the neutron radiography apparatuses and x-ray mammography apparatus. Photographs taken by the neutron radiography are compared with a photomicrograph of stained rabbit hepatic cancer. Clear descriptions for normal tissue and the cancer tissue are obtained by the photograph of the sliced rabbit-tissue because that neutron radiography takes a slight change of water content in the bio-tissue. Soft tissue in the internal parts of rabbit-bone, which is impossible to observe by x-ray imaging, is depicted by the neutron CT. A change of aging bone in contrast to young one is observed by the CT photography also. The phantom experiments show that Gadolinium (Gd) as a contrast medium is effective even to take a photograph of moist sample. (M. Suetake)