X-RAY COMPUTED TOMOGRAPHY: AN ENGINEERING SYNTHESIS OF MULTISCIENTIFIC PRINCIPLES.

In 1971 an X-ray scanner was developed which produced cross-sectional images of the brain by employing several different scientific concepts, some known for over 50 years. The reduction of these concepts to practice was a significant scientific achievement, and was based on a precisely engineered instrument which transmitted X-rays through the body and recorded their attenuation around 180 degree , providing the data for computation and display of cross-sectional images of the body. Although the decade of the 1970s has seen this new technology - called X-ray computed tomography (CT) - develop and expand into several areas of application, the foremost of these remains in medical imaging where a phenomenal evolution in capabilities of CT scanners has occurred. However, the trend toward faster scanners with concomitant improvements in imaging accuracy holds promise for significant applications in basic biomedical and physiological research as well, with capabilities for quantitative analysis of anatomic-physiologic relationships and for noninvasive diagnostic body tissue examination and determination of tissue characteristics which have heretofore been possible only by surgical procedures, histological techniques, and/or pathological dissection at autopsy.