Tough question Scheb !
I can understand your Cardiologist relative's (grammatically
ugly !) misgivings. As I said in a previous post, some new
technologies are not accepted readily, except as a screening
tool for obvious pathologies, and even then, the "traditional"
techniques are still used for confirmation. What is the point of
having a multimillion dollar machine that nobody relies on
to give a 100% (or close) diagnosis ? Hopefully, for the company's
investors' sake, IMAT scanners will find a definite niche in
the imaging industry.
It seems that every 10 years or so, there is a startling new
development in Medical Imaging. Some are new technologies, but
some are new applications of old technologies that were not
thought of, or at least not possible due to various considerations.
Computing processing power and speed were/are the limitations
for many imaging modalities.
Ultrasound (U/S) appeared in the 50s/60s, CT in the 70s,
MRI in the 80s and PET towards the 90s. What's in store for
2000 ? Well, apart from a big party, I wouldn't like to bet.
Maybe a body temperature based imaging modality ??? Actually,
"thermography" was tried in the 70s, but failed miserably at the
time.
What we will see is continual refinements of current modalities
in line with better computing power, more sensitive receptors,
and improved reconstruction software.
For example, U/S has gone from a multi hour procedure for a
patient lying in an oil bath, to an instantaneous 3-D process
that can even be mounted on a small endoscopic instrument and
take picture of the heart from inside the oesophagus.
CT went from an hour per slice and very "pixelly" basic images
to very detailed images reconstructed in fractions of seconds
which can be 3-D rendered.
MRI has been around since the 40's, but nobody thought to take
Nuclear Magnetic Spectroscopy concepts and apply them to imaging
until the late 70/early 80s, and even then, the computers could
only barely manage to do the reconstructions.
Things will get smaller, better and faster for sure. Imatron
apparently takes a different look at an old concept and makes
unique changes to the process. I'm looking forward to finding
out more about it in the next week or so.
Regards,
Durro |
