High-resolution tomographic imaging of a human cerebellum: comparison of absorption and grating-based phase contrast by Georg Schulz, Timm Weitkamp, Irene Zanette, Franz Pfeiffer, Felix Beckmann, Christian David, Simon Rutishauser, Elena Reznikova, and Bert Müller Interface Volume 7(53): December 6, 2010 ©2010 by The Royal Society

Top view of the experimental set-up consisting of the detector and the grating interferometer composed of a beam-splitter and an analyser grating. Georg Schulz et al. J. R. Soc. Interface 2010;7: ©2010 by The Royal Society

One reconstructed slice plus the appropriate histogram of the phase-contrast results showing three different strata and several blood vessels (bright regions in the slices that exceed the grey- scale range) of the human cerebellum. Georg Schulz et al. J. R. Soc. Interface 2010;7: ©2010 by The Royal Society

Grating interferometry phase-contrast reconstruction with a grey-scale range corresponding to 34 standard deviations of the formalin peak (a) compared with accordant BW2 absorption- contrast reconstruction with a grey-scale range corresponding to 34 (c) and... Georg Schulz et al. J. R. Soc. Interface 2010;7: ©2010 by The Royal Society

A 100-fold binning of the phase-contrast results reveals the distinction of the spatial resolution between SRµCT and contemporary medical MRT. For that, we assumed a pixel size of 0.5 mm for nowadays common medical high-resolution MR-results. Georg Schulz et al. J. R. Soc. Interface 2010;7: ©2010 by The Royal Society

For the calculation of the spatial resolution, the ratio between rSPstruc of a tomogram ROI with a fine structure and rSPback of a tomogram ROI with background (water) was plotted over spatial frequency. Georg Schulz et al. J. R. Soc. Interface 2010;7: ©2010 by The Royal Society

The phase-contrast three-dimensional rendering of the whole specimen with a virtual cut through it (a,b) demonstrates the feasibility to segment one of the shown structures by simple intensity-based segmentation. Georg Schulz et al. J. R. Soc. Interface 2010;7: ©2010 by The Royal Society

Another phase-contrast three-dimensional rendering of the specimen presumably shows the so- called Purkinje cells. Georg Schulz et al. J. R. Soc. Interface 2010;7: ©2010 by The Royal Society