Fig. 3: Phase contrast enables a drastic improvement in soft-tissue visualization.
From: X-ray phase contrast reveals soft tissue and shell growth lines in mollusks
To give a general understanding of the soft-tissue anatomy, the upper row shows mechanical sectioning of three species: a Brachidontes mutabilis, where the inner demibranch (id), outer demibranch (od), labial pulp (lp), and mantle margin (mm) are marked; b Ruditapes philippinarum, where the foot (f), intestine (i), mantle margin (mm), inner demibranch (id), outer demibranch (od) and stomach (s) are marked; and c Conus ebraeus where the foot (f), digestive gland (dg), pallial oviduct (po), and stomach (s) are marked. The second and third rows show the corresponding CT slices for conventional contrast and phase-contrast imaging. In (g) PBI reveals a large number of structures, including the periostracum (A), mantle margin (B), ctenidium (C), and gonad (D) which do not appear in (d). The same is true for (e, h) where new features appear, such as the intestine (E) and digestive gland (F). In (i) the contrast is still lacking, but there is still a clear improvement compared with (f), which allows the hypobranchial gland (G) and ctenidium (H) to be observed in the right part of the image. The scales in the corresponding images in the second and third rows are the same.
