Applications of X-ray diffraction analysis in crystalline and amorphous body tissues

Elastic scattering of x-ray photons can provide information in a number of areas of tissue analysis in medicine. This paper describes measurements made of two types of tissue to demonstrate three different areas of application:•Data are presented on the differential linear coherent scattering coefficients for healthy and diseased breast tissue with the intention that such results could be used in the design and development of mammographic imaging systems.•Scattering results on bone tissue are presented along with techniques that can be used to make quantitative estimates of important biological or clinical parameters. To demonstrate the use of these approaches examples are taken from the archaeological study of bone and the clinical estimate of skeletal status.