The video above is the first color 3D X-ray, which shows the inside of a person’s body using the so-called MARS spectral X-ray scanner.
It has been performed by MARS Bioimaging using CERN technology (called Medipix3), artificially colored by applying a different color for each type of tissue. Professors Phil and Anthony Butler, from the universities of Canterbury and Otago, spent a decade developing and refining this product.
The first X-ray in colour and 3D
Each tissue reacts differently when the rays arrive, so it is easy to identify them within the human body. The CERN chip can detect these variations, while at the same time being able to obtain information on the density and atomic composition of a tissue.
They say on the CERN Web site that this color x-ray imaging technique could produce clearer, more accurate images and help doctors give their patients more accurate diagnoses.
In the case of the video, the 3D image is of a wrist showing part of the finger bones in white and soft tissue in red. So far, researchers have been using a small version of the MARS scanner to study cancer, bone and joint health, and vascular diseases that cause heart attacks and strokes.
The initial idea of tracking particles in the LHC is now applied to medicine, although we are still a long way from being able to see this type of x-ray in the medical laboratory on the corner.