Grating-based dark-field computed tomography: an ex-vivo porcine lung study

X-ray computed tomography (CT) is a well-established and frequently used technique in clinical diagnostics because of its non-destructively generated high-resolution images. There have been several refinements and promising new technologies such as dual-energy CT or photon counting detectors which gain even more detailed insights. All these techniques are restricted to the X-rays' attenuation contrast only. Dark-field CT, on the contrary, amplifies the radiological information by accessing indirect information on the tissues microstructure, including e.g., porosity, by utilizing a grating interferometer. In this work, we use ventilated ex-vivo porcine lungs to mimic the clinical use case of dark-field CT realistically. We demonstrate that the system has a sufficient sensitivity for lung imaging and obtain a first benchmark for HUd values of lung tissue.