Goodbye to black and white: color X-rays are here.

The first tests carried out with this scanner are already being used to study cancer

A New Zealand company has developed a new type of scanner that enables 3D and color X-rays. This method is based on the particle tracking technology used in the Large Hadron Collider, CERN`s particle accelerator.

This new technology could be used to obtain more detailed and precise images than traditional black-and-white X-rays and thus contribute to a better medical diagnosis. The first color X-rays that have been presented publicly show the detail of an ankle and a wrist in which even the watch can be seen.

How does it work

The scanner, developed by scientists Phil and Anthony Butler of the Universities of Canterbury and Otago in New Zealand, uses a detector that captures spectral information, that is, information of color or energy from X-rays that traditional detectors do not use. .

The Medipix3 chip works in a similar way to the sensor in a digital camera, but when its shutter is released it is able to detect and count the particles that hit each pixel.

This chip, enhanced with custom data processing algorithms, can detect the change in wavelengths as X-rays pass through different materials in the body. In this way the scanner can distinguish between bone, muscle, fat, fluids and the rest of the materials and tissues of the human body.

The additional software that comes with the scanner is based on all this information to create full-color images that allow a three-dimensional view of the inside of our body.

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Publication Date: 2020-01-20

Source: redaccionmedica.com