Medical Technology

Medical Technology
Medical technology advances rapidly during the 20th century. Imaging technologies, such as X- rays and PET scans, allow a disease to be diagnosed without having to cut and open the patient. With sophisticated surgical equipment, doctors carry out increasingly complex treatments, curing more diseases and keeping more patients alive.
PET scan
PET (Positron emission tomography) scanners investigate activity in the brain. They detect radiation given off by the brain and produce an image. They are used to locate tumours and diagnose epilepsy.
Endoscope
Doctors look inside the body using an endoscope – a long flexible tube of optical fibres, some fibers carry light into the body, others carry an image back to the doctor on a video screen.
X-rays
An X-ray is radiation used to take photographs of bones and teeth. As X-rays pass through a patient’s body, they are absorbed by bone but not by softer tissues. Detectors by photographic film, this produces as shadowy image of the inside of the body.