From X-rays to Radiography

Hello friends of Hive, what I like as part of humanity is the amazing technological development experienced through time, either by mistake or trial, but in the way that I have continued very consistently in the field of medicine in the last decades of the century we are amazed by its extraordinary technological advances and new knowledge in this field. New applications of technology in radiography is one of that trend of advance in medicine.

X-rays type of electromagnetic radiation,
We must know that X-rays, as simple as electromagnetic radiation of the same nature as radio waves, also microwave waves, infrared rays, visible light, ultraviolet rays and gamma rays, the important thing is that I hate gamma rays. Nuclear radiation produced by the de-excitation of a nucleon from an excited level to a lower energy level and by the decay of radioactive isotopes.

X-rays these rays I was unaware of in the form of this, since they arise from extra-nuclear phenomena, at the level of the electronic orbit, fundamentally produced by deceleration of electrons, which is why this type of ray is found between radiation ultraviolet, which is also considered to be an ionizing radiation because when interacting with matter it produces ionization of the atoms of it, where these ions have a charge.

Image source on pixabay

At one point in history it shows us how William Crookes, who investigated the effects of certain gases in the 19th century by applying energy discharges to them, where his experiment applied it to an empty tube, and electrodes to generate high voltage currents . Then we met German Wilhelm Conrad Röntgen discovered X-rays in 1895, while experimenting with Hittorff-Crookes tubes and Ruhmkorff coil, to investigate the violet fluorescence produced by cathode rays, this experiment concluded that this type rays created a very penetrating radiation, which at the same time was invisible, but not everything ends here, but also found that this has the peculiarity of going through large thicknesses of paper and even thin metals, decided to do another experiment again, where I apply As simple as a photographic plates to demonstrate that the objects were more or less transparent to X-rays depending on their thickness, thanks to this I was able to make the first human radiograph, which would change another way of seeing in the field of medicine. he made it at his wife's hand.

Well in the field of physics only an accelerated charge emits electromagnetic radiation, where friend occurs the following a shock produces a continuous spectrum of X-rays, in which a certain minimum wavelength dependent on the energy of the electrons, for that matter
X-ray tubes are used in laboratories and hospitals, which can be of two kinds: tubes with filament or tubes with gas.

Diagram of an X-ray tube, Source of image from wikipedia domain Author: Rsael

Did you know that only an x-ray is a quick and painless test that generates images of the internal structures of the body, especially the bones, thanks to the fact that X-ray beams pass through the body and are absorbed in different amounts Depending on the density of the material they pass through, where dense materials, such as bone and metal, appear white on radiographs, for deeper studies, it uses a kind of contrast such as iodine.

It is this era in which we live today is the digital age, in which medicine is very much supported. A more daily example is included nuclear medicine, computed tomography, digital subtraction angiography, some ultrasounds and by then the new technique magnetic resonance imaging. Previously radiology images came from conventional film, over time the technology evolved where analog to digital converters began to be incorporated.

□Bibliographic Reference □

Essential Radiology
By Spanish Society of Medical Radiology, 2010