Doctors rely on modern imaging technologies to give them very precise impressions of internal tissues. They can then use information yielded from such scans make diagnoses and inform treatments.
CT scans rank among the most common types of imaging tests ordered by doctors. Advanced technology facilitates each CT scan, during which a machine passes an x-ray source around a patient’s body. This produces signals that a computer interprets, ultimately producing cross-sectional images that carry detailed medical data. In fact, radiologists can combine the individual cross-sections into a 3D model of the tissues scanned.
CT scans represent a flexible diagnostic tool that physicians make use of in a wide array of medical contexts. For example, they may order CT scans to determine how cancer has reacted to chemotherapy, to monitor the progression of heart disease, or to diagnose fractures.