Highlights

Simultaneous wood and metal particle detection on dark-field radiography

Since detection of retained wood is a frequent but challenging task in emergency care, this study aimed to demonstrate the improved foreign-body detection. By simulating a clinical setting, it was concluded that x-ray dark-field radiography enables the simultaneous detection of wooden and metallic particles in the extremities and that it has the potential to improve and simplify the current state-of-the-art foreign-body detection.

Key points:
•    Retained wood is hardly detectable in an effective, reliable way for emergency settings.
•    Grating-based x-ray dark-field imaging enables the detection of wood on plain radiography.
•    The signal-to-noise ratio of wood was six times higher compared to that obtained for conventional attenuation.
•    Conventional radiography image is acquired simultaneously with the dark-field image.

Article: Simultaneous wood and metal particle detection on dark-field radiography

Authors: Eva-Maria Braig, Lorenz Birnbacher, Florian Schaff, Lukas Gromann, Alexander Fingerle, Julia Herzen, Ernst Rummeny, Peter Noël, Franz Pfeiffer and Daniela Muenzel