Helical differential X-ray phase-contrast computed tomography.

We report on the first experimental results of helical differential phase-contrast computed tomography (helical DPC-CT) with a laboratory X-ray tube source and a Talbot-Lau grating interferometer. The results experimentally verify the feasibility of helical data acquisition and reconstruction in phase-contrast imaging, in analogy to its use in clinical CT systems. This allows fast and continuous volumetric scans for long objects with lengths exceeding the dimension of the detector. Since helical CT revolutionized the field of medical CT several years ago, we anticipate that this method will bring the same significant impact on the future medical and industrial applications of X-ray DPC-CT.