![]() All of these signals are collected by a computer, which reconstructs them to form a three-dimensional image of the brain that the radiologist can analyze on a computer to look for injuries. The CT technology uses small bursts of radiation that pass through the body, similar to X-rays, and create different signals depending on the type of tissue they pass through, be it skin, bone, brain, or other tissue types. The CT scanner, as it is known for short, is a machine that allows doctors to see into a patient’s brain without surgery. When a patient has a brain injury, one of the first things radiologists do in the emergency department of the hospital is to use a special kind of “camera,” called a computed tomography (CT) scanner, to look at the patient’s brain. This is thought to be the first medical X-ray (Image credit: Otto Glasser, Wilhelm Conrad Röntgen and the early history of the Roentgen rays.Figure 1 - An X-ray of the hand of Anna Ludwig taken on 22 December 1895 by her husband Wilhelm Röntgen.If you have ever broken a bone, you likely had an X-ray to determine where the break occurred. You can see the different finger bones, called phalanges, and a dark blob on the ring finger, which is her wedding ring. In Figure 1, you can see the bones of Röntgen’s wife’s hand, thought to be the first X-ray image of a human body part. The invention of the X-ray is credited to German mechanical engineer Wilhelm Conrad Röntgen who, in 1895, generated and detected the electromagnetic radiation that became the basis of the X-ray technology we still use today. The word radiology was derived from the word parts “radio,” for radiation, and “ology,” from the Greek suffix meaning the scientific study of something. The name radiology comes from the first type of “camera” or technology that was used to take these pictures, called the X-ray machine, which uses radiation. The field of medicine that is focused on capturing and analyzing images of the brain and all parts of the body is called radiology. Behind the scenes, there are special cameras that allow us to see deep inside of the brains of patients every day. ![]() ![]() Brain imaging technology plays an important role in helping doctors diagnose and treat conditions like brain injuries. Did you know that doctors look at the brains of thousands of people every day? In hospitals all over the nation, we are looking into patients’ brains to see if something has gone wrong, so we can understand how to help treat each patient’s condition. ![]()
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