Question

Which revolutionary imaging system was developed by Godfrey Hounsfield and Alan Cormack?

• A. X-ray computed tomography
• B. Digital x-ray imaging
• C. Computerized axial tomography
• D. Digital subtraction angiography

Answer 1

Answer: (A)

X-ray computed tomography

Sir Godfrey Newbold Hounsfield was an English electrical engineer who shared the 1979 Nobel Prize for Physiology or Medicine with Allan McLeod Cormack for his part in developing the diagnostic technique of X-ray computed tomography (CT). Positron-emission tomography (PET) is a nuclear medicine functional imaging technique that is used to observe metabolic processes in the body as an aid to the diagnosis of disease. The system detects pairs of gamma rays emitted indirectly by a positron-emitting radionuclide, most commonly fluorine-18, which is introduced into the body on a biologically active molecule called a radioactive tracer. Three-dimensional images of tracer concentration within the body are then constructed by computer analysis. In modern PET-CT scanners, three-dimensional imaging is often accomplished with the aid of a CT X-ray scan performed on the patient during the same session, in the same machine.

So the correct option is 'positron emission tomography'.