Brain tumor imaging using small-angle x-ray scattering tomography.

We demonstrate high-resolution small-angle x-ray scattering computed tomography (SAXS-CT) of soft matter and soft tissue samples. Complete SAXS patterns over extended ranges of momentum transfer are reconstructed spatially resolved from volumes inside an extended sample. Several SAXS standard samples are used to quantitatively validate the method and demonstrate its performance. Further results on biomedical tissue samples (rat brains) are presented that demonstrate the advantages of the method compared to existing biomedical x-ray imaging approaches. Functional areas of the brains as well as tumor morphology are imaged. By providing insights into the structural organization at the nano-level, SAXS-CT complements and extends results obtainable with standard methods such as x-ray absorption tomography and histology.