Conical slit and conventional X-ray sources: Challenging steps for calcium spots detection

An easy and simple to build conical slit (CS) was designed and tested, in a sample model approach, in order to check its possible use to detect Calcium Oxalate (CO) breast microcalcifications (MC) using conventional X-ray sources. A single-cone conical slit (SCCS) and a multi-cones conical slit (MCCS) were designed and constructed. Also, the CS apertures were calculated in order to maximize the diffracted intensity, while also providing sufficient angular resolution. The detection was done by scintillation detector and by films. The alignment of SCCS and MCCS is straightforward. The SCCS and MCCS capability in resolving CO diffraction cones were tested under different background scattering condition. For this, composite samples made up of CO embedded in different soft materials (paraffin wax or polypropylene or polyamide) have been explored. SCCS showed some limitation especially due to the superposition with low order CO powder diffraction cones and diffraction cones arising from paraffin wax and polypropylene. On the other hand MCCS showed to be efficient to resolve the CO diffraction cones in any case. MCCS shall be useful for next step tests with real in-vitro breast samples.