CT Scan

Prasad Hospital has the facility of performing CT scans. A CT scan or computed tomography scan is an imaging procedure in which cross-sectional images of the body are created. In CT, a narrow beam of x-rays is targeted at a patient and quickly rotated around the body. It generates signals that are processed by the CT machine’s computer to generate the images called tomographic images. These images are put together to create a 3D image of the patient. The 3D image makes it possible to easily identify and locate the body parts and abnormalities.

A CT scanner employs a motorized x-ray source that rotates around a donut-shaped structure called gantry. There is a bed located in it and the patient lies on it. The bed moves at a low speed. While the bed is moving, the x-ray tube rotates around the patient and releases x-ray beams that pass through the body. A digital x-ray detector is located directly opposite to the x-ray source. This x-ray detector picks up the x-rays that pass through the patient. The x-rays are transmitted to a computer. Whenever the x-ray source completes one rotation, the computer creates a 2D image of the patient. After this, the motorized bed is moved forward incrementally into the gantry. The process repeats until a particular number of 2D images have been collected. These images are then stacked together to create a 3D image of the patient. The 3D image displays the skeleton, tissues, and organs along with any abnormalities that the doctor is attempting to identify.