Computed tomography (CT)

Computed tomography (CT) was invented in the 1970s by Sir Godfrey Hounsfield, who was awarded the Nobel Prize in Medicine in 1979. Since this inspired invention there have been many generations of CT scanners.  

Quite simply, CT scanner obtains a series of images of the body (slices) in the axial plane. The patient lies on a bed, an X-ray tube passes around the body and a series of images are obtained. A computer carries out a complex mathematical transformation on the multitude of images to produce the final image