CT scan

This article is about X-ray computed tomography as used in medicine. For cross-sectional images used in industry, see Industrial computed tomography. For means of tomography other than X-ray, see Tomography.

CT scan
Modern CT scanner (2021), photon-counting CT (Siemens NAEOTOM Alpha)
Other namesX-ray computed tomography (X-ray CT), computerized axial tomography scan (CAT scan),[1] computer aided tomography, computed tomography scan
ICD-10-PCSB?2
ICD-9-CM88.38
MeSHD014057
OPS-301 code3–20...3–26
MedlinePlus003330
1977 Dutch newsreel about CT scan

A computed tomography scan (CT scan), formerly called computed axial tomography scan (CAT scan), is a medical imaging technique used to obtain detailed internal images of the body.[2] The personnel that perform CT scans are called radiographers or radiology technologists.[3][4]

CT scanners use a rotating X-ray tube and a row of detectors placed in a gantry to measure X-ray attenuations by different tissues inside the body. The multiple X-ray measurements taken from different angles are then processed on a computer using tomographic reconstruction algorithms to produce tomographic (cross-sectional) images (virtual "slices") of a body. CT scans can be used in patients with metallic implants or pacemakers, for whom magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) is contraindicated.

Since its development in the 1970s, CT scanning has proven to be a versatile imaging technique. While CT is most prominently used in medical diagnosis, it can also be used to form images of non-living objects. The 1979 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine was awarded jointly to South African-American physicist Allan MacLeod Cormack and British electrical engineer Godfrey Hounsfield "for the development of computer-assisted tomography".[5][6]

  1. ^ "CT scan – Mayo Clinic". mayoclinic.org. Archived from the original on 15 October 2016. Retrieved 20 October 2016.
  2. ^ Hermena S, Young M (2022), "CT-scan Image Production Procedures", StatPearls, Treasure Island, Florida: StatPearls Publishing, PMID 34662062, retrieved 2023-11-24
  3. ^ "Patient Page". ARRT – The American Registry of Radiologic Technologists. Archived from the original on 9 November 2014.
  4. ^ "Individual State Licensure Information". American Society of Radiologic Technologists. Archived from the original on 18 July 2013. Retrieved 19 July 2013.
  5. ^ "The Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine 1979". NobelPrize.org. Retrieved 2019-08-10.
  6. ^ "The Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine 1979". NobelPrize.org. Retrieved 2023-10-28.