Online Encyclopedia
Computed axial tomography
Computed axial tomography (CAT), computer-assisted tomography, computed tomography, CT, or body section roentgenography is the process of using digital processing to generate a three-dimensional image of the internals of an object from a large series of two-dimensional x-ray images taken around a single axis of rotation. The x-ray slice data is generated using an X-ray source that rotates around the object; X-ray sensors are positioned on the opposite side of the circle from the X-ray source. Many data scans are progressively taken as the object is gradually passed through the gantry.
The word "tomography" is derived from the Greek tomos (slice) and graphia (describing).
Newer machines with faster computer systems and newer software strategies can process not only individual cross sections but continuously changing cross sections as the gantry, with the object to be imaged, is slowly and smoothly slid through the x-ray circle. These are called spiral CT machines. Their computer systems integrate the data of the moving individual slices to generate three dimensional volumetric information, in turn viewable from multiple different perspectives on attached CT workstation monitors.
The data stream representing the varying radiographic intensity sensed reaching the detectors on the opposite side of the circle during each sweep, 360 degree in conventional machines, 220 degree in EBT, are then computer processed to calculate cross-sectional estimations of the radiographic density, expressed in Hounsfield units.
CT is used in medicine as a diagnostic tool and as a guide for interventional procedures. Sometimes contrast materials such as barium (administered orally or rectally) or intravenous iodinated contrast are used. This is useful to highlight structures such as vessels or intestines that otherwise would be difficult to delineate from their surroundings. Using contrast material can also help to obtain functional information about tissues. See diagnostic uses of a CT scan for more detail.
Although most common in healthcare, CT is also used in other fields, e.g. nondestructive materials testing.
The CT system was invented in 1972 by Godfrey Newbold Hounsfield of EMI Central Research Laboratories (now Sensura [1] http://www.sensaura.com owned by Creative Technology Ltd.) using x-rays. Allan McLeod Cormack of Tufts University independently invented the same process and they shared a Nobel Prize in medicine in 1979 (See also history of brain imaging). The first scanner took several hours to acquire the raw data and several days to produce the images. Modern multi-detector CT systems can complete a scan of the chest in less time than it takes for a single breath (useful if the patient cannot hold his/her breath) and display the computed images in a few seconds.
Pixels in an image obtained by CT scanning are displayed in terms of relative radiodensity. The pixel itself is displayed according to the mean attenuation of the tissue that it corresponds to on a scale from -1024 to +3071 on the Hounsfield scale. Water has an attenuation of 0 Hounsfield units (HU) while air is -1000HU, bone is typically +400HU or greater and metallic implants are usually +1000HU.
Improvements in CT technology have meant that the overall radiation dose has decreased, scan times have decreased and the ability to recalculate images (for example, to look at the same location from a different angle) has increased over time. Still, the radiation dose from CT scans is several times higher than conventional X-ray scans.
In 2003, the cost of an average CT scanner was $1.3 million US.
See also
- EBT
- Cardiology diagnostic tests and procedures
- Brain imaging
- Medical imaging
- Medical ultrasonography
- Magnetic resonance imaging (MRI)
- Positron emission tomography (PET)
- X-ray
- X-Ray tube
- Tomographic reconstruction