Depiction of a knee joint of pig by means of synchrotron X-ray diffraction enhanced imaging with a Laue-type analyzer

Abstract

The diffraction enhanced imaging (DEI) of Laue geometry using synchrotron radiation with a 2-dimensional exposure field has been successfully preformed at an X-ray energy of 30 keV. The sample used was the raw knee joint of a Landrace-Large White-Duroc cross with a width of 7.5 cm. The depiction on the X-ray image was expected to appear similar to a human-adult knee joint. Two kinds of incident X-ray with almost the same intensity were acquired by the forward diffracted X-rays and the diffracted X-rays in the DEI system. Both X-rays were recorded as 2-dimensional images on a mammography film without an intensifying screen or by a high resolution imaging-plate. The DEI delineates joint soft tissues such as a joint cartilage, the meniscus and the anterior cruciate ligament that could not be detected by conventional X-ray method. The image of the anterior cruciate ligament was delineated by a white-black line, whose full-width, defined as the length from the outside of the black lines to that of the white, was from 0.08 to 0.10 mm in the forward diffracted X-ray image when mammography film was used. The delimitation ability of DEI would be better than that of a clinical MRI because of the high contrast of the contour image. This novel method could be applicable to diagnosis of partial ruptures of the ligament and meniscus, and diagnostic imaging to observe early stages of rheumatoid arthritis (RA) and osteoarthritis (OA).