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"The images we have, which are the first to be published using this new DEI technology, are just spectacular," said Dr. Etta Pisano, professor of radiology at the UNC School of Medicine.
Pisano led the research, which was published in the March issue of Radiology, with Dr. Dale Sayers, professor of physics at North Carolina State University.
Before the technology can be used in hospitals, researchers said there are technical hurdles to overcome.
One drawback to DEI is that the technology relies on a piece of equipment called a synchrotron, which is rare and expensive. The machine is a large accelerator that speeds up atomic particles such as electrons and positrons to create electromagnetic radiation.
"Obviously we can't bring everybody to the world's few synchrotrons for routine mammography, and so we have to make this technology clinically portable," Pisano said in a statement. "Right now we think that's doable."
Once they can achieve this, the technology could be used not only for breast imaging, but also in any medical or non-medical application involving X-rays, Pisano said.
The researchers compared seven breast cancer tissue specimens using the DEI technique to results of the same samples using conventional digital X-ray images. They found that they could make out the tumor more clearly using DEI in six of the seven specimens.
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