Quantitative x-ray radiography using grating interferometry: a feasibility study

X-ray grating interferometry is a promising tool for medical imaging because of its capability of providing additional and complementary information to conventional absorption-based methods. This technology can simultaneously measure absorption, differential phase and small-angle scattering signals from the sample, significantly improving the diagnostic content. In this work, we present a method which uses the image (dubbed the R image) obtained by taking the ratio of the absorption and small-angle scattering signals to gain quantitative insight from a radiographic x-ray projection. We demonstrate that with the help of the R image we can successfully distinguish among different (light-Z) plastic materials, which are usually used to mimic soft tissues. Two potential applications in medical imaging, such as quantitative x-ray radiography and volumetric breast density estimation, are demonstrated. (paper)