Radiology

Radiology is a branch of medical science that employs medical imaging technology for the diagnosis of diseases.

HISTORY

Wilhelm Conrad Roentgen (1845-1923) pioneered radiology with “X-radiation” in 1895 at the Physical Institute of Wuerzburg University. His invention was first published in an 1895 volume of a publication of the Wuerzburg Physical-Medical Society. Thereafter, radiology became a reality.
Now, it is a specialized professional field and the experts are known as radiologists. Medical imaging is done by professionals known as radiographers or radiologic technologists. There are hosts of imaging technologies today, such as the ultrasound, Computed Tomography (CT) and magnetic resonance imaging and interventional radiology, which is the usually minimally invasive medical process with the aid of imaging technologies. Other than the medical field, radiology is also applied in the examination of the inner structure of objects using some form of invasive radiation.

TYPES OF RADIOLOGY

In the medical field, radiology is of the following categories:

Diagnostic radiology: This is the analysis of the images of the various parts of human body for the diagnosis of a disease. It can be further divided into the following branches depending upon the part of the body it deals with and the method employed:

Therapeutic radiology:This primarily involves interventional neuroradiology that takes human body images for therapeutic and angiographic procedures for the head, neck and spine.

Musculoskeletal radiology:This is the sub-specialty in the field of bone, joint and muscular imaging.

Pediatric radiology:As the name suggests it deals with infants, children and young adults.

Mammography:This deals with images of the breast tissue.

Nuclear Medicine:This involves radioisotopes in the identification of lesions and diseases.

Teleradiology:This involves the transmission of radiographic images from one place to another for the use of radiologists.

Radiographs or Roentgenographs:This is named after Wilhelm Conrad Roentgen and is used for the study of bony structures and soft tissues.

Fluoroscopy:Fluoroscopy and angiography are specialized branches of X-ray imaging that enables real-time imaging of body organs.

Computed Tomography (CT) scanning:CT imaging uses X-rays in combination with computing algorithms for images.

Ultrasonography:This involves ultrasound or high-frequency sound waves to image soft tissue structures in real time.

Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI):MRI involves strong magnetic fields and a radio signal for even more sophisticated radiology.