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Photos: The super 3D body scanner
Look inside the human body…

By Gemma Simpson

Published: Tuesday 04 December 2007

Philips Medical Systems has unveiled a CT (Computer Tomography) scanner which can produce detailed 3D images.

The Brilliance iCT scanner reduces the amount of radiation a patient is exposed to by as much as 80 per cent and generates images in a fraction of the time of other scanners.

Dr Keith Prowse, chairman of the British Lung Foundation, said the Brilliance iCT machine enables clinicians to see much smaller things in both the lungs and the airways and the scanner is a quantum shift from the first CT scanners as it gives a lot more detail.

Prowse added, in the case of cancer it will help clinicians see how far it has spread and pick up any new patterns of abnormality.

The 256-slice CT machine builds up the 3D picture by taking a series of images using X-rays, and then combining them to produce the final shot.

Photo credit: Philips Medical Systems