PRINCIPLES of CARDIAC AND VASCULAR COMPUTED TOMOGRAPHY
Cardiac computed tomography (CT), the most highly developed application of x-ray imaging, is currently experiencing more advancement per year than ever in its history—probably more than any other imaging modality in the history of x-ray–based medical imaging.
THE ROAD TO THE PRESENT
X-Rays
Wilhelm Conrad Roentgen was awarded the first Nobel Prize in Physics in 1901 for the first intentional generation and use of x-rays, in 1895. He was a firm academic traditionalist, and, intending to preserve his scientific integrity, he signed away all commercial rights to his invention. His name lives on as one of many units of (medical) radiation. His descriptions of the physics of his novelform of “rays” were so definitive that they still constitute a large proportion of the theory of x-ray radiation.