So are the first X-ray images in 3D color

The first X-ray scanner capable of displaying 3D and color images is a reality. A company called MARS Biomaging developed this technology, which has not shown progress recently.

Images are obtained when X-rays pbad through the body, are absorbed by denser materials such as bones and pbad through the milder ones, such as muscles and other tissues.

Then, the X-rays that pbad without obstacles hit a film on the opposite side of the body and appear on the monitor as black areas. On the other hand, the places where x-rays can not pbad appear white

Now, physics professor Phil Butler and his son Anthony Butler, professor of bioengineering have created a scanner that uses a combination of technology Medipix – developed for the first time to help researchers at the European Center for Nuclear Research (CERN) track particles with the help of the Large Hadron Collider – and computerized algorithms to produce 3D X-rays.

Butler instead of recording how x-rays pbad through the body or are absorbed by the bone, it records the precise energy levels of x-rays that hit every particle in your body . Then translate these measurements into different colors that represent your bones, muscles and other tissues.

Although currently used black-and-white X-rays are sufficient to know if a bone has a fracture, they reveal very little about the tissue and the muscle that surrounds it. Therefore, doctors could use these new 3D x-rays to help diagnose problems not only in the bone, but all around it.

"This technology distinguishes our machine (in the way of diagnose) because its small pixels and the precise resolution of energy mean that this new tool can get images that no other tool can not achieve, "said Phil Butler in a CERN press release

is already used for a series of studies that include cancer and stroke .

"In all these studies, promising initial results suggest that when spectral images are commonly used in clinics, this will allow more accurate diagnosis and treatment customization," Butler said.

The next step is to test the scanner in an essay focusing on orthopedic patients and rheumatologists in New Zealand. But even if all goes well with this test, it could be years before the device receives the regulatory approval it would need to generalize.