@misc{herzen_imaging_liver_2014, 
author={Herzen, J.,Willner, M.S.,Fingerle, A.A.,Noel, P.B.,Koehler, T.,Drecoll, E.,Rummeny, E.J.,Pfeiffer, F.},
title={Imaging Liver Lesions Using Grating-Based Phase-Contrast Computed Tomography with Bi-Lateral Filter Post-Processing},
year={2014},
howpublished = {journal article},
doi = {https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0083369},
abstract = {X-ray phase-contrast imaging shows improved soft-tissue contrast compared to standard absorption-based X-ray imaging. Especially the grating-based method seems to be one promising candidate for clinical implementation due to its extendibility to standard laboratory X-ray sources. Therefore the purpose of our study was to evaluate the potential of grating-based phase-contrast computed tomography in combination with a novel bi-lateral denoising method for imaging of focal liver lesions in an ex vivo feasibility study. Our study shows that grating-based phase-contrast CT (PCCT) significantly increases the soft-tissue contrast in the ex vivo liver specimens. Combining the information of both signals – absorption and phase-contrast – the bi-lateral filtering leads to an improvement of lesion detectability and higher contrast-to-noise ratios. The normal and the pathological tissue can be clearly delineated and even internal structures of the pathological tissue can be visualized, being invisible in the absorption-based CT alone. Histopathology confirmed the presence of the corresponding findings in the analyzed tissue. The results give strong evidence for a sufficiently high contrast for different liver lesions using non-contrast-enhanced PCCT. Thus, ex vivo imaging of liver lesions is possible with a polychromatic X-ray source and at a spatial resolution of ~100 µm. The post-processing with the novel bi-lateral denoising method improves the image quality by combining the information from the absorption and the phase-contrast images.},
note = {Online available at: \url{https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0083369} (DOI). Herzen, J.; Willner, M.; Fingerle, A.; Noel, P.; Koehler, T.; Drecoll, E.; Rummeny, E.; Pfeiffer, F.: Imaging Liver Lesions Using Grating-Based Phase-Contrast Computed Tomography with Bi-Lateral Filter Post-Processing. PLoS One. 2014. vol. 9, no. 1, e83369. DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0083369}}