Under the hood August 7, 2008
Posted by tomography in CT, Radiology.Tags: CT
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It is a rare moment when you get a sneak peak into something that is considered and industry secret. Everyone who has read at least 10 pages from a Radiology book knows how the CT scanner works, but have you ever wondered what it is like to see the scanner during operation with the futuristic white plastic off? I found this on YouTube a short while ago. Trust me, you are going to like it:
I wrote a similar article back in January about a stripped down MRI scanner. You are welcome to read it here.
– Andras
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Interesting. I had no idea it was that fast.
Me neither! 🙂
And there are even faster ones in the business.
How come it’s so silent?
Thomas
In reality, I mean (not the video)– I’ve been in one for a scanning once, I didn’t imagine there was this high-speed thing rotating around my abdomen.
One of the problems for our museum that specializes in contemporary medicine is that many medical devices are hopeless as museum artefacts because they are so damned anonymous. Like CT scanners: huge white or light blue plastic/metal boxes, that’s all.
People who have been scanned for some serious condition may have strong personal feelings about such artefacts — but for the rest of us, they are pretty lousy museum objects. But your post makes me change my mind.
There are quite a few spinning CT scanners on YouTube. I show some of them in a post here
So what really strikes me when seeing these clips is how the strip act changes the scanner as a museum artefact — from being an anonymous white silent behemoth to a lively noisy object with a lot of fascinating detail. Strong presence effects!
As a commentator on the ‘CT at max speed’-movie says (his spelling):
In other words: imagine having that washing-machine-centrifugish thing spinning around your body! What if the bearings crack?
I’ll try to convince my colleagues that we shall acquire a used ‘live’ CT scanner from the National Hospital for our exhibition? We probably have to comply with some basic security rules for displaying machines at work — but that aside, I think it would be worth trying.
Thanks for you comment, Thomas! Your post is fantastic as well!
We should make a Radiology Grand Rounds together or something. Would you be able to help?
I am not exactly sure why it is so silent during operation, but I guess its due to the costly high-tech that is under the cover.
– Andras
[…] CT, Radiology. Tags: CT, Radiology, scan trackback Thomas, mentioned my last post titled “Under the Hood” in his latest blog post titled “A spinning CT scanner as a cool museum artifact” […]
What’s a radiology grand rounds?
Th
It would be a blog carnival: a regular (monthly, weekly?) edition of the best diagnostic imaging related blog posts, news, etc. based on the submission of its participants. You are welcome to check out the medicine 2.0 blog carnival at http://medicine20.wordpress.com/.
For this to work, we would need to find other bloggers in this area of science, contact them, and ask them to submit their posts via email or by other means. Let me know what you think!
Andras
Hi András,
Sounds like a great idea. I think we will stay focussed on the historical, cultural and museological aspects of contemporary medicine (including imaging technology), however, rather than engaging in the medical stuff itself. In other words, I’d love to be part of a blog carnival om medical museums, or medical science communication, or contemporary medical history, or the culture of contemporary medicine.
Th
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