The World Within :: essays research papers fc

The World Within   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  What can be done with medicine today is truly astounding. In just a little over a century, we have gone from crude, anaesthetized surgery with non-sterilized instruments to the ability to delicately rebuild a hand or bypass a major artery with little risk to the patient and without even leaving a large scar. These great heights to which we have ascended are based upon a number of breakthroughs in sanitation and sterilization, antibiotics, and any number of other small discoveries that make possible today’s operating room – but by far the most powerful and groundbreaking advances have been made in the field of human imaging.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  For over sixteen hundred years, the edicts and guidelines of the Catholic Church forbade the exploration of the human body. This sad state of affairs effectively limited our knowledge of the body to studies performed upon stolen cadavers and the rather inaccurate classical-era studies of Galen. Even when the ban upon anatomical study was lifted, by the end of the nineteenth century we had still progressed no further than an understanding of the basic anatomy as observed by dissection. Then, in the last five years of the nineteenth century, two important discoveries ushered in a new era in medicine: Roentgen’s discovery of x-rays in 1895 and Bequerel’s discovery of â€Å"Uranium rays† – nuclear radiation – in 1896. These forms of electromagnetic radiation, and their derivatives, form the basis of today’s most prevalent and important imaging technology – X-rays, Computed Tomography (CT), and nuclear medicine.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  At its most basic level, x-ray technology works by using a high-voltage current to generate a burst of x-rays (high-frequency electromagnetic radiation), which are then focused and directed through the human body. Certain materials, such as bone and cartilage, absorb more of the radiation than other tissues, which creates a â€Å"shadow† in the x-ray beam that is recorded on a special cassette containing photographic film, situated on the other side of the patient. Upon development of the film, the image of the bone structure (and some other tissue) can be studied to diagnose any apparent pathologies (Wolbarst 33). Today, this technology is wildly popular – almost everyone has had at least one x-ray during his life. However, the two-dimensional nature of an x-ray does create some limitations in its usefulness – but a further development of this technology has eliminated these.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Computerized Tomography, invented in 1963, is essentially a development of x-ray technology that allows a physician to observe highly detailed â€Å"slices† of the human body, and today is â€Å"highly reliable, non-invasive, painless, quick, and available on an urgent, 24 hour-a-day basis at most hospitals (Kelly 50).