High contrast radiography of normal and cataractous canine lenses

Cataract is a disease that degrades the transparency of crystalline lenses. The crystalline lens is a cellular structure that has a unique shape and protein composition. Cataract is associated with changes in the structure and composition of the lenses. Analyser-based x-ray phase contrast imaging (PCI) is a non-destructive technique that presents images with more contrast and details than the images acquired with conventional synchrotron radiography. Here, an analyser-based x-ray PCI set-up was optimized in the XRD2 beamline at Brazilian Synchrotron Light Laboratory for comparative studies on PCI and conventional synchrotron radiography, for non-cataractous (healthy tissue) and cataractous crystalline (diseased tissue) lenses. Refraction angle and apparent absorption contrast images (diffraction enhanced imaging-DEI) were also obtained. The present PCI and DEI images indicate that the healthy tissue shows enhanced shell structures, while in the diseased tissue these are almost absent. This is associated with the clinical case of total opacity of the cataractous crystalline lenses when it is exposed to visible light