Three-dimensional reconstruction of human nipple using refraction-contrast x-ray computed Tomography

Although the nipple is clinically relevant, little is known about the spatial location of the main ducts in the nipple. A controversy still exists as to whether the main ducts are interconnected or not within the nipple. Most previous studies have suggested that such anastomosis is rare between the main ducts in the nipple, but it remains difficult to examine whether the particular individual case does have such anastomoses or not because reconstructing the 3-D structure from the 2-D pathological images generally requires great laborious efforts. In the research, we directly reconstructed the 3-D structure of milk ducts in human nipples using the refraction-contrast X-ray computed tomography based on emerging x-ray dark field imaging optics (XDFI-CT), which allows visualizing the precise 3-D structure of biological soft tissue as well as the stained pathological image.