Evolution of the CT scan: colour x-rays the next big development

Tue May 17 2016 12:00:00 GMT+1200 (New Zealand Standard Time)

Evolution of the CT scan: colour x-rays the next big development

17 May 2016

Microchip technology is transforming one of the most widely used medical tools, the CT scan.

As new technologies develop, CT scanning is evolving from an anatomical tool to a technology that can help clinicians understand the biochemistry and physiology for a wide range of disorders with a precision and accuracy that was previously unimaginable.

For the next lecture in the Gibbons lecture series at the University of Auckland, Professor Anthony Butler from the Universities of Otago and Canterbury discusses his work at the leading edge of CT scanning and its use as a biochemical tool.

By using microchip technology in x-ray detectors, it has become possible to measure the x-ray colour (or spectrum) in CT which enables tissue measurement at a scale previously difficult to obtain.

Medical researchers are applying the new technologies to problems in vascular disease, cancer, and joint disease. Cutting edge CT research is now aiming to apply highly sophisticated algorithms to further increase accuracy and reduce x-ray dose.

For osteoarthritis, this means new colour CT technology allows clinicians to look at joint and cartilage damage before the disease has developed.

For heart and stroke, the new technologies can examine the walls of arteries to a far more accurate degree so that surgeons can identify exactly which arteries might cause a heart attack.

In cancer treatment, colour scans can be used to track active drug treatment by observing nanoparticles from the drug going directly into cancer tumour cells.

“At the moment we use drugs to treat people who have risk factors but we can’t really know whether or not we are treating the disease,” Professor Butler says.

“But with new developments in technology, we can not only diagnose disease much earlier, we can use CT scanning to directly measure whether or not a drug is directly targeting the problem.”

Professor Butler is Head of Department of Radiology and Director of Bioengineering and Nanomedicine at the University of Otago. He also has an appointment in the Department of physics at the University of Canterbury and academic affiliations with CERN, Geneva.

He has won more than 10 awards for his research including awards from the Royal Society of NZ and the Royal Australian College of Radiologists. He is the lead investigator on over $12m of NZ government research grants, and co-investigator on more than $30m of other grants. 

2016 Gibbons Lectures

• A case study of IT in Medical Imaging: The evolution of Computed Tomography - Thursday 19 May
      Professor Anthony Butler.
      University of Otago at Christchurch, Head of the Department of Radiology and Director of the Centre for Bioengineering and Nanomedicine.
• Using IT to improve health delivery for management of chronic illness - Thursday 26 May
      Professor Jim Warren.
      Professor of Health Informatics, Department of Computer Science, the University of Auckland.

This lecture series is free and open to the public. Drinks and nibbles are provided from 6pm on Level 1 of the Owen G Glenn Building (Business School), Grafton Road, Auckland. Lectures will commence at 6.30, and take place in OGGB3 on Level 0 of the Owen G Glenn Building.

For media enquiries, please contact Anne Beston - a.beston@auckland.ac.nz