The first X-ray color scanner reveals everything inside the human body



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We are all very familiar with the concept of x-rays that help doctors detect minor to major bone fractures. The technology has been in use for over a century, but now a team of engineers has developed a colorful X-ray scanner – one that takes ultra-fine photographs not only of your bones but also of your muscles and tissues.

The new spectral X-ray scanner MARS uses imaging technology developed by the European Organization for Nuclear Research (CERN) and produces sophisticated images that show everything under your skin and which is marked with different colors.

 French. Wrist-800x500 A 3D image of a wrist with a watch showing part of the finger bones in white and soft tissue in red. Photo: MARS Bioimaging Ltd

Up until then, the x-rays were only intended to find and analyze the anatomy of the bone. Doctors transmit electromagnetic radiation through a selected body part, which is disrupted due to the presence of bone. The dense material absorbs some of these rays and appears white in the resulting image, while the remaining rays pass through the softer tissues and muscles and appear as a solid black.

Although this gives a good idea of ​​the bone structure and condition There is nothing to learn about the softer part that leaves the rays unimpeded. That's where the new scanner developed by Phil Butler and his son Anthony comes in.

Working for their company MARS Bioimaging, the duo spent more than a decade designing a scanner that could provide more information for a better medical diagnosis. a patient. They focused on the same scanning mechanism but used a sophisticated imaging technology developed at CERN called Medipix.

The Medipix chip was originally developed for use in the CERN Large Hadron Collider particle accelerator that detected the Higgs boson. Simple terms, the technology detects and counts the particles that reach each pixel and allows high resolution imaging.

MARS Bioimaging used these capabilities to form the third generation of this technology and use it in its 3D color scanner. [19659002] The device, like the described version, emitted X-ray beams, but instead of the conventional way, it measured how the wave length of the radiation changed after striking different particles in your body like a bone or a fabric. When this happens, a sophisticated algorithm uses this information to produce a 3D image with different colors representing different scanned materials. This makes it easy to differentiate bones, fats, muscles, calcium, disease markers or any other tissue in the body.

"This technology distinguishes the machine because its small pixels and its precise energy resolution make this new imaging tool Phil Butler said in a statement

The operation of the scanner has been proven, but it still has to go through a number of tests and regulatory controls before being used in modern clinics. However, whenever this happens, doctors will be able to use it for an accurate diagnosis of cancer or arthritis.

"In all these studies, promising preliminary results suggest that when spectral imaging is commonly used in clinics, more accurate diagnosis and personalization of treatment," concluded Anthony Butler in the statement.

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