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An X-ray technique that shows a single plane (slice) of the object under examination, typically a part of the human body. See CAT scan.
For more information on tomography, visit Britannica.com.
A process by which an image is produced through different planes of a body part using X-rays or ultrasound. See also computerized tomography.
A procedure by which waves are sent through an object and computers produce images of cross sections of the object by using information on how the waves are changed. Both ultrasound and CAT scans are medical uses of this technique, but it is also widely used in science and industry.
An image of a tissue plane or slice produced by tomography.
Tomography is imaging by sections or sectioning. A device used in tomography is called a tomograph, while the image produced is a tomogram. The method is used in medicine, archaeology, biology, geophysics, oceanography, materials science and other sciences. In most cases it is based on the mathematical procedure called tomographic reconstruction. There are many different types of tomography, as listed: (Note that the Greek word tomos conveys the meaning of "a section" or "a cutting"). A tomography of several sections of the body is known as a polytomography.
For example, in conventional medical X-ray tomography, clinical staff make a sectional image through a body by moving an X-ray source and the film in opposite directions during the exposure. Consequently, structures in the focal plane appear sharper, while structures in other planes appear blurred. By modifying the direction and extent of the movement, operators can select different focal planes which contain the structures of interest. Before the advent of more modern computer-assisted techniques, this technique proved useful in reducing the problem of superimposition of structures in projectional (shadow) radiography.
More modern variations of tomography involve gathering projection data from multiple directions and feeding the data into a tomographic reconstruction software algorithm processed by a computer. Different types of signal acquisition can be used in similar calculation algorithms in order to create a tomographic image. With current 2005 technology, tomograms are derived using several different physical phenomena including X-rays, gamma rays, positron-electron annihilation reaction, nuclear magnetic resonance, ultrasound, electrons, and ions. These yield CT, SPECT, PET, MRI, ultrasonography, 3D TEM, and atom probe tomograms, respectively.
Some recent advances rely on using simultaneously integrated physical phenomena, e.g. X-rays for both CT and angiography, combined CT/MRI and combined CT/PET.
The term volume imaging might subsume these technologies more accurately than the term tomography. However, in the majority of cases in clinical routine, staff request output from these procedures as 2-D slice images. As more and more clinical decisions come to depend on more advanced volume visualization techniques, the terms tomography/tomogram may go out of fashion.
Many different reconstruction algorithms exist. Most algorithms fall into one of two categories: filtered back projection (FBP) and iterative reconstruction (IR). These procedures give inexact results: they represent a compromise between accuracy and computation time required. FBP demands fewer computational resources, while IR generally produces fewer artifacts (errors in the reconstruction) at a higher computing cost.
Recently a new technique called synchrotron X-ray tomographic microscopy (SRXTM) allows for detailed three dimensional scanning of fossils.
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