Digital Dictionary

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Medical Imaging

Marie Cauli¹ and Jean-Pierre Pruvo²

¹Université d’Artois, Arras, France

²CHU, Université de Lille, France

Medical imaging occupies a central place in the care process. It benefits from the contribution of information technology and digital image processing. Walking a fine line between disciplines, medical specialties and technologies, it has become essential for doctors and health care users alike, and is presented as one of the decisive factors in future medical progress.

Imaging: the gateway to diagnosis and therapy

Medical imaging began with the appearance of X-rays in 1895. Although this technique is still widespread and still concerns a large number of examinations carried out, it has been joined by other more efficient techniques. Computed tomography (CT), ultrasound and magnetic resonance imaging (MRI), based on physical phenomena such as nuclear magnetic resonance and ultrasound, plus optical imaging, can provide images of the body in a non-invasive or minimally invasive manner. They give immediate access to information that is undetectable during clinical examination and invisible on standard X-rays. They make a remarkable analysis of the most inaccessible and complex organs possible, according to their composition, activity, dimension, volume and density, depending on any section angle up to the total representation of the analyzed object in 3D.

Thus, whether through the multiplication of media, gains in precision, coupling between tools or specialties, ...