Diagnostic radiology is the field of medicine that uses imaging exams and procedures to diagnose a patient. In any form of medical care, diagnostic radiology plays an integral part in the diagnosis of disease or injury.
Computed tomography (CT)
A CT Scan uses an x-ray beam that rotates around the patient. This process generates data used by a computer to generate an image of the body’s internal structure. Each picture created during a CT procedure shows the organs, bones, and other tissues in a thin “slice” of the body. The entire series of pictures produced in CT is like a loaf of sliced bread, you can look at each slice individually (2-dimensional pictures), or you can look at the whole loaf (3-dimensional picture). Computer programs are used to create both types of pictures.
Physicians frequently use CT to examine the brain, sinuses, lungs, chest, abdomen, pelvis, and skeleton.
In our hospital CT machines take continuous pictures in a helical (or spiral) fashion rather than taking a series of pictures of individual slices of the body. Helical CT has several advantages like Speed, produces better 3-D pictures of areas inside the body, and may detect small abnormalities also. In addition to its use as CT Simulator in cancer patients for planning to locate the volume of cancer cells and Dose calculation. CT can be a life-saving tool for diagnosing illness and injury in both children and adults.
X-RAY
X-rays are highly penetrating, ionizing radiation, therefore X-ray machines are used to take pictures of dense tissues such as bones and teeth. This is because bones absorb the radiation more than the less dense soft tissue. X-rays from a source pass through the body and onto a photographic cassette.
MAMO
Mammography is the process of using low energy X-rays to examine the human breast and is used as a diagnostic and a screening tool. The goal of mammography is the early detection of breast cancer, typically through detection of characteristic masses and/or micro-calcifications.
C-ARM
A mobile image intensifier generally consists of two units, the X-ray generator and image system on a portable imaging system (C-arm) and the workstation unit used to store and manipulate the images. The imaging system unit can perform a variety of movements that allow for use in a variety of surgical procedures such as cardiology, orthopedics and urology. This unit provides the appropriate structure to mount an image intensifier and an X-ray tube with a beam limiting device positioned directly opposite from and aligned centrally to each other.
