Basic principes of Computed Tomography (CT), part 4 (History)

A bit of history of Computed Tomography

Head and brain CT [http://umm.edu]

It all began with the discovery of x-rays in 19th century. It was firs studied by Johann Wilhelm Hittorf, but he still just observed few results of interaction of x-rays with matter. After him, it was also studied by William Crookes (Crookes tube), Heinrich Hertz, Philip Lenard, Nikola Tesla and finally Hermann von Helmholtz, who mathematically proves x-rays before they were proven in laboratory by Wilhelm Conrad Röntgen. He first stumbled on x-rays on November 8, 1895 and two months later he wrote his first letter about these rays.

Wilhelm Conrad Röntgen [http://web.calstatela.edu]

[http://www.slideshare.net/nagallifa/]

In 1924 Johann Radon wrote his theory of reconstruction of tomographic pictures. On his work was based more theories and finally in 1963 Allan McLeod Cormack set basic theory for CT. Sir Godfrey Hounsfield used improved radons transformation - algebraic recontruction and work of Cormack to build first comercial CT scanner.
Both Cormack and Houndsfield gain their Nobel Prize in Medicine.

Generations of CT

1. generation - translation & rotation principe

• It tooked too much time and patient gained a lot of radiation

[https://cw.fel.cvut.cz]

2. generation - translation & rotation principe

• Faster

[https://cw.fel.cvut.cz]

3. generation - rotation principe only

[https://cw.fel.cvut.cz]

4. generation - rotation principe with detector ring

[https://cw.fel.cvut.cz]

5. generation - Electron beam CT

[https://openi.nlm.nih.gov]