X Rays in Medicine

NOV 01, 1995

For almost a century, x rays have been used for medical imaging and for radiation therapy. Now these two clinical regimes are converging in the latest technology.

DOI: 10.1063/1.881440

William R. Hendee

One hundred years ago this month Wilhelm Röntgen, a professor of physics at the Julius Maximilian University of Würzburg, discovered x rays while experimenting with cathode rays in a Crookes tube. Word of the discovery spread quickly, and by early 1896 the properties of x rays were under investigation in numerous physics laboratories in Europe and North America. By the turn of the century, physicians and physicists were exploiting the penetrating character of x rays to look inside the human body without cutting it open. They were also beginning to explore the therapeutic properties of x radiation.

This article is only available in PDF format

References

1. F. MettlerJr, J. Briggs, R. Carchman, K. Altobelli, B. Hart, C. Kelsey, Radiology 189, 377 (1993).https://doi.org/RADLAX
2. A. Lichter, T. Lawrence, New Eng. J. Med. 332, 371 (1995).
3. For information, contact the American Association of Physicists in Medicine, One Physics Ellipse, College Park MD 20740‐3846.
4. W. Hendee, R. Ritenour, Physics of Medical Imaging, 3rd ed., Mosby, St. Louis (1992), p. 429.
5. G. Hounsfield, Brit. J. Radiol. 46, 1016 (1973).
A. Cormack, J. Appl. Phys. 34, 2722 (1963). https://doi.org/JAPIAU
A. Cormack, J. Appl. Phys. 35, 2908 (1964).
6. S. Webb, From the Watching of Shadows: The Origins of Radiological Tomography, Adam Hilger, Philadelphia (1990).
7. K. Peschmann et al., Appl. Opt. 24, 4052 (1985).https://doi.org/APOPAI
8. Digital Imaging, W. Hendee, J. Trueblood, eds., Medical Physics, Madison, Wisconsin (1983).
9. M. Sonoda, M. Takano, J. Miyahara, H. Kato, Radiology 148, 833 (1983).https://doi.org/RADLAX
10. G. T. Barnes, X. Wu, A. J. Wagner, Med. Prog. Technol. 19, 7 (1993).https://doi.org/MDPTBG
11. J. C. Wandtke, D. B. Plewes, Am. J. Roentg. 157, 359 (1991).
12. M. Cawthon, J. Weiser, D. Smith, in Digital Imaging, W. Hendee, J. Trueblood, eds., Medical Physics, Madison Wisconsin (1993), p. 545.
13. W. Hendee, G. Ibbott, Radiation Therapy Physics, 2nd ed. Mosby, St. Louis (1995), in press.
14. A. Wolbarst, in Encyclopedia of Medical Devices and Instrumentation, vol. 4, Wiley‐Interscience, New York (1988), p. 2488.
15. H. Dobbs, S. Webb, in The Physics of Medical Imaging, Adam Hilger, Philadelphia (1988), p. 128.
16. A. Redpath, Brit. J. Radiology 61, 561 (1988).
17. W. Swindell, R. Simpson, J. Oleson, C. Chen, E. Grubb, Med. Phys. 10, 416 (1983).
18. G. Mageras et al., Internat. J. Rad. Oncol. Biol. Phys. 30, 971 (1994).
19. D. Convery, M. Rosenbloom, Phys. Med. Biol. 37, 1359 (1992). https://doi.org/PHMBA7
T. Mackie et al., Med. Phys. 20, 1709 (1993).

More about the authors

William R. Hendee, Medical College of Wisconsin, Milwaukee.