CT Scanner: History & Inspiration

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CT Scanner History Inspiration
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By Vikki Harmonay
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You never know when inspiration will strike, as
proven in the 60s, when Research Engineer Godfrey
Hounsfield had a conversation with a doctor while
on vacation. History CT The physician shared his
frustration about the quality of X-ray images of
the brain being too grainy and two-dimensional. I
t just so happened that Hounsfield worked for
Electrical and Musical Industry in Hayes,
England, which developed electronic equipment,
but was best known for producing and selling
records by the Beatles.
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Post vacation, the engineer approached his
supervisor about trying to develop a machine that
could create three-dimensional images of the
brain. He believed he could create a machine that
would send narrow beams of X-rays through an
individuals head, with a computer using the
resulting data to construct a series of cross
sections that when assembled together, would
create a 3D image of the brain. He worked with a
team of neurologists to build the machine. In
1971, the first computed tomography scan of the
human brain was created. As a result, Hounsfield
was a co-recipient of the Nobel Prize in 1979 in
Physiology or Medicine.
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Hounsfields journey to the CT Scanner was an
interesting one. He first served with the Royal
Air Force, learning the basics of radar and
electronics. He joined EMI in 1951, developing
radar and guided weapons systems. In 1958, he
helped design Britains first commercially
available all-transistor computer called the
Emidec1100. His boss warned him that his job
would be in jeopardy if he didnt develop another
great ideawhich ended up being the CT Scanner.
EMI didnt want to get into the medical imaging
business but was willing for Hounsfield to work
on the CT Scanner, as long as he could raise
additional funding. He applied for and received a
40,000 grant from the British Department of
Health and Social Care.
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The first prototype was small enough to fit on a
table top, and was tested on small pigs. Once the
scanner was successful, a full-sized scanner was
built to test on human brains that had been
preserved in formalin. Unfortunately, the
formalin hardened the brain tissue so it didnt
even look like normal brain matter when scanned.
The scientists then tried cow brains, but since
they had been killed with an electric shock, the
brains were filled with blood, obstructing the
radiologists view of the organs structure and
mass. A team member was Jewish and suggest using
kosher cow brains since they died by having their
jugular slit, which caused the blood to drain
away from the cows skull. They were able to scan
these brains.
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In 1971, the scanner was installed in Atkinson
Morley Hospital in London. A woman who showed
signs of a brain tumor was the first patient.
X-rays were shot through her skull through a
single site above her head while she lay on a
table. When the beams passed through her, they
struck a crystal detector housed in a gantry
located above her head. The detector and the
X-ray source moved around her in one-degree
increments until they had turned 180 degrees.
Each device ended up at the others starting
point. The scan took 30 minutes and it took two
hours to construct the image of the brain, which
had a cystic mass the size of a plum on the left
frontal lobe of the woman.
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EMI then manufactured CT Scanners and sold them
to hospitals, but within five years other
companies developed more enhanced body scanners.
EMI could not compete. However, Hounsfields
scanner was commemorated with an IEEE Milestone
where the technology was developed. Both the
United Kingdom and Ireland Section of the IEEE
sponsored the nomination. The IEEE Milestone
places is displayed on an exterior wall at the
Old Vinyl Factory, stating, On Oct 1 1971, a
team at the EMI Research Laboratories located on
this site produced an image of a patients brain,
using the worlds first clinical X-ray
computerized tomography scanner, based on the
patented inventions of Godfrey Hounsfield. The
practical realization of high-resolution X-ray
images of internal structures of the human body
marked the beginning of a new era in clinical
medicine.
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And to think it all started because of a casual
conversation while on vacation. Atlantis
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