Foundations of Medical Imaging and Signal Recording - Biomedical Signal Analysis: Contemporary Methods and Applications - page 8

Xray imaging

(a)

Radionuclide imaging

(b)

Xray

Subject Detector

Detector

source

Radio
nuclide

tracer

(d) Ultrasound

(c) MRI

RF transmitter

RF receiver

Ultrasound
Transducer

Magnetic

field

Figure 1.3
Schematic representations of the most frequent used medical imaging modalities
[153].

In this chapter, we discuss the four main medical imaging signals
introduced in figure 1.3. The medical physics behind these imaging
modalities, as well as the image analysis challenges, will be presented.
Since the goal of medical imaging is to be automated as much as possible,
we will give an overview of computer-aided diagnostic systems in section
1.3. Their main component, the workstation, is described in great detail.
For further details on medical imaging, readers are referred to [51,
164, 280].

Imaging with Ionizing Radiation

X-ray, the most widespread medical imaging modality, was discovered
by W. C. Rontgen in 1895. X-rays represent a form of ionizing radiation