Sometimes in order to determine or rule out the potential cause of a medical condition, doctors need to peek inside the patient’s body.

Over the past few decades, technological advances have given doctors unprecedented access to seeing what’s happening inside the body without cutting it open and potentially causing more damage.  Although surgery is sometimes the appropriate course, doctors can easily get a glimpse at what’s going on without surgery.  The technology they use will depend on the symptoms and the region of the body they want to take a look at.  Doctors will turn to radiologists who specialize in the use and interpretation of these technologies, which include X-Rays, CT scans, Nuclear scans, MRIs, and Ultrasounds.

X-Ray

X-rays are a high-energy electromagnetic radiation, the same as ordinary visible light but with more energy.  Because X-rays can penetrate into the human body unlike visible light, they can be used to take photos of the inside of the body.  Different tissues absorb different amounts of X-rays, with the calcium in bones absorbing the most.  The more x-rays something absorbs, the more white it looks in the picture, so doctors can differentiate different internal structures to help with a diagnosis.

CT/CAT Scan

CT scans are “Computed Topography,” scans, which use x-rays and sophisticated computer algorithms to build up a cross-sectional picture of the body.  This allows more focus on areas of interest than traditional x-rays, which flatten everything into a single picture.

Nuclear Scans

For a nuclear scan, the patient receives a small bit of radioactive material.  It may be injected, swallowed, or inhaled, depending on the structures the doctors want to image.  Then, once the material has had a chance to work its way through the appropriate structure, an image is taken with a camera that detects the radioactive material.  By seeing where the material has spread, and often where it has not spread, doctors are able to diagnose certain problems.

MRI

MRI scans are “Magnetic Resonance Imaging,” which refers to the strong magnetic field used to create images.  Because of the magnetic field, patients should have no metal (such as piercings, etc.) in their body.  The magnetic field orients hydrogen atoms in the body, and radio waves are sent through to detect where these hydrogen atoms are located.  Because most of the body is made up of water, each of which has two hydrogen atoms, as well as many other molecules containing hydrogen, very detailed pictures of the body can be made in this way.

Ultrasound

Ultrasounds use high-frequency sound waves.  The sound waves are sent into the body through a transducer, and the way the sound waves moves through the body, interacting with tissues of various densities in various ways, can help create an image based on the waves that bounce back to the transducer.

Imaging the inside of the body is a very important tool for doctors, and Radiologists, who are the imaging specialists, are very important for modern medicine.  If you’re looking for a radiology specialist, or if you have any questions about medical diagnosis or any other health concerns, be sure to use IPALC’s search function to find a doctor at www.ipalc.org/find or contact IPALC directly at info@ipalc.org, and one of our staff will gladly help you.