Medical Imaging

Medical imaging is the process by which physicians evaluate an area of the subject's body that is not externally visible. Medical imaging may be clinically motivated, seeking to diagnose and examine disease in specific human patients.

Alternatively, it may be used by researchers in order to understand processes in living organisms. Many of the techniques developed for medical imaging also have scientific and industrial applications.

Medical imaging often involves the solution of mathematical inverse problems. This means that cause (the properties of living tissue) is inferred from effect (the observed signal).

In the case of ultrasonography the probe consists of ultrasonic pressure waves and echoes inside the tissue show the internal structure.

In the case of radiography, the probe is X-ray radiation which is absorbed at different rates in different tissue types such as bone, muscle and fat.

In its most primitive form, imaging can refer to the physician simply feeling an area of the body in order to visualize the condition of internal organs. This was used historically to diagnose aortic aneurysms, fractures, enlarged internal organs, and many other conditions.

It remains an important step today in making initial assessments of potential problems, although additional steps are often used to confirm a diagnosis. The primary drawbacks of this approach are that the interpretation may be quite subjective and that recording the 'image' is difficult.

Where can I get Medical Imaging?

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