phaidra.vetmeduni.ac.at o:5206 DOI 10.1515/mim-2025-0006 Microscopic dual-energy computed tomography (microDECT) imaging of animal tissues: the colour of X-rays In this view article, we present potential applications of laboratory-based spectral dual-energy X-ray microtomography imaging for ex vivo animal tissue samples. Technical details on this topic have been reported in previous work, so we focus explicitly on applications here, discussing both dual-energy imaging for the separation of mineralised tissue from one X-ray dense contrast agent, as well as the imaging of samples stained with two X-ray dense contrast agents. Examples are given for a variety of research areas, including preclinical biomedical phenotyping (vasculature, skeletal development), comparative vertebrate morphology, and invertebrate anatomy. Based on the data presented, we conclude that the use of spectral X-ray information can provide new insights into CT datasets. Although using the dual-energy approach initially requires more effort and cost in data acquisition, this additional effort is often worthwhile, as dual-energy datasets allow for more efficient data visualisation, segmentation, and analysis. Until now, software functions for acquisition and processing of dual-energy data have not been implemented in many of the software toolboxes provided by X-ray microtomography vendors with their scanners. We propose that a user-friendly implementation of software tools for acquiring and processing spectral CT data would be a big step towards a wider use of this promising and powerful imaging approach. eng X-ray Microtomography MicroCT µCT DECT Basis Material Decomposition DiceCT 2026-06-22T14:56:30.343Z LOMv1.0 Author BEGIN:VCARD VERSION:3.0 N:Handschuh;Stephan; FN:Stephan Handschuh X-ORCID:https://orcid.org/0000-0002-2140-7892 END:VCARD BEGIN:VCARD VERSION:3.0 N:Reichart;Ursula; FN:Ursula Reichart X-ORCID:https://orcid.org/0000-0001-9709-0919 END:VCARD BEGIN:VCARD VERSION:3.0 N:Kummer;Stefan; FN:Stefan Kummer X-ORCID:https://orcid.org/0000-0002-0746-1403 END:VCARD BEGIN:VCARD VERSION:3.0 N:Gabner;Simone; FN:Simone Gabner X-ORCID:https://orcid.org/0000-0001-8853-5939 END:VCARD BEGIN:VCARD VERSION:3.0 N:Ruthensteiner;Bernhard; FN:Bernhard Ruthensteiner X-ORCID:https://orcid.org/0000-0002-2205-7943 END:VCARD BEGIN:VCARD VERSION:3.0 N:Sombke;Andy; FN:Andy Sombke X-ORCID:https://orcid.org/0000-0001-7383-440X END:VCARD BEGIN:VCARD VERSION:3.0 N:Schwaha;Thomas; FN:Thomas Schwaha X-ORCID:https://orcid.org/0000-0003-0526-6791 END:VCARD BEGIN:VCARD VERSION:3.0 N:Beisser;Christian J.; FN:Christian J. Beisser X-ORCID:https://orcid.org/0009-0004-6503-5754 END:VCARD BEGIN:VCARD VERSION:3.0 N:Lemell;Patrick; FN:Patrick Lemell X-ORCID:https://orcid.org/0000-0003-0262-4047 END:VCARD BEGIN:VCARD VERSION:3.0 N:Haberthür;David; FN:David Haberthür X-ORCID:https://orcid.org/0000-0003-3388-9187 END:VCARD BEGIN:VCARD VERSION:3.0 N:Hlushchuk;Ruslan; FN:Ruslan Hlushchuk X-ORCID:https://orcid.org/0000-0002-6722-8996 END:VCARD BEGIN:VCARD VERSION:3.0 N:Glueckert;Rudolf; FN:Rudolf Glueckert X-ORCID:https://orcid.org/0000-0002-2900-6866 END:VCARD BEGIN:VCARD VERSION:3.0 N:Metscher;Brian D.; FN:Brian D. Metscher X-ORCID:https://orcid.org/0000-0002-6514-4406 END:VCARD BEGIN:VCARD VERSION:3.0 N:Glösmann;Martin; FN:Martin Glösmann X-ORCID:https://orcid.org/0000-0002-2094-3247 END:VCARD https://w3id.org/kim/hcrt/scheme https://w3id.org/kim/hcrt/text Textdokument Text LOMv1.0 yes https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0 application/pdf 7485768 https://phaidra.vetmeduni.ac.at/o:5206 https://phaidra.vetmeduni.ac.at/api/object/o:5206/thumbnail LOMv1.0 discipline