The X-Ray projects



September 31, 2006 was the date of the conclusion of Dear-Mama project. From January to September 2006, major milestones where achieved. The Dear-Mama consortium decided to build a second X-ray machine dedicated to bone radiology (Dear-Mama-II) which can be seen in fig.1. This X-ray machine is the first of it is kind as a prototype based on pixel CdTe detector coupled to photon counting front end electronics (Medipix-II chip). Simply it is a unique X-ray machine. It was commissioned and was ready and operational by March 2006 and its first results can be seen in figure 2. When compared to another system, AGFA CR75.0, the Dear-Mama-II machine shows that it is superior in spatial resolution and it dose reduction. In Figure 3 one can see the image of a Lamb cutlet and the corresponding contrast histogram. In Figure 4 one can see the image of the phantom from both systems. With this image one can judge, with the naked eye, which image is better when it comes to spatial resolution. Add to this that the Dear-Mama-II image was taken with 6-times less radiation dose than that of Agfa-CR-75.0. We have also found that at 110keV, using chest phantom, the efficiency of Dear-Mama-II machines is 11 times better that that of the Agfa CR75.0 when it comes to radiation dose reduction. Since the images of Dear-Mama-II machine are presented without contrast enhancement image processing, it is clear that there is still a good margin to reduce the radiation dose, while maintaining the same quality of the image, by a factor around 50. This is a significant reduction in radiation dose especially when it comes to routine check-up such as chest radiology or men above 60 years old. These tests were carried out at UDIAT (Hospital Parc Tauli) with two teams; one from HÔPITAL D’ ENFANTS ARMAND TROUSSEAU led by Prof. J.P. Montagne, and the other is from Hospital of Vienna University led by Prof. F. Kainberger.





Concerning the Dear-Mama-I machine, which is dedicated to Mammography, it was commissioned in summer 2005, and the clinical trials, using phantom and specimen, were carried out during the 2006. The evaluation of Dear-Mama machine for Mammography was carried out by expert team from Hospital Parc Tauli, led by MD. M. Sentis. It was done using phantom, and lumpectomy specimens. In Fig. 5 one can see a nurse fixing a lumpectomy specimen to the Dear-Mama-I detector using the compressing pad. And the result can bee seen in Fig.6 in which the micro calcifications are clearly visible. The conclusion is that Dear-Mama-I results, without the use of Contrast Enhancement Image processing, are comparable to Selenia X-ray machine which is considered the best in the market. We have very good confidence that there is ample room to improve the results of Dear-Mama-I machine to by-pass Selenia, both in spatial resolution and in image contrast. We expect that this improvements will be done by the X-ray Imatek SL enterprise.



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