The A to Z Guide to VA Disability Benefits
JimStrickland912
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The soldier above all others prays for peace, for it is the soldier who must suffer and bear the deepest wounds and scars of war.
Douglas MacArthur
Douglas MacArthur
X-Ray (Medical Imaging)
The common term for imaging of the human body is x-ray. Not that many years ago if your doctor wanted to peer inside your body and didn't want to slice into you to do that, you got an x-ray.
An x-ray showed the doc a pretty decent image of bones and a lesser image of organs and soft tissues. The lack of being able to look deep into your body caused many "exploratory" surgeries so that a proper diagnosis could be made.
Today the x-ray department is called "medical imaging" and the techniques used are as fascinating as they are hugely expensive. These are some of the most complex and costly pieces of machinery in the hospital.
However, the expense is justified by the amount of time and the number of lives saved. Medical imaging allows doctors to make an instant diagnosis in situation that just 25 years ago would have meant a quick trip to an operating room and a surgeon to explore your vital organs.
Here are details on a few of the common techniques your VA doctor may order for you.
Angiogram - An x-ray of blood vessels which can be seen because the patient receives an injection of dye to outline the vessels on the x-ray.
CAT Scan - (CT Scan) An image produced by a CAT scanner. CT scans differ from conventional x ray by collecting x rays that have passed through the body (those not absorbed by tissue) with an electronic detector mounted on a rotating frame rather than on film.
MRI - An MRI, also known as magnetic resonance imaging, is a pain-free non-invasive medical test used to produce two dimensional images of the structures of the body. The process uses intense magnetic fields to make images of the inside of the body.
Nuclear Medicine Imaging - A branch or specialty of medicine and medical imaging that uses radioactive isotopes (radionuclides) and relies on the process of radioactive decay in the diagnosis and treatment of disease.
PET Scan - Positron emission tomography: PET. A highly specialized imaging technique that uses short-lived radioactive substances to produce three-dimensional colored images of those substances functioning within the body. These images are called PET scans and the technique is termed PET scanning.
X-ray - A photograph of a body structure using x-rays on film.
The common term for imaging of the human body is x-ray. Not that many years ago if your doctor wanted to peer inside your body and didn't want to slice into you to do that, you got an x-ray.
An x-ray showed the doc a pretty decent image of bones and a lesser image of organs and soft tissues. The lack of being able to look deep into your body caused many "exploratory" surgeries so that a proper diagnosis could be made.
Today the x-ray department is called "medical imaging" and the techniques used are as fascinating as they are hugely expensive. These are some of the most complex and costly pieces of machinery in the hospital.
However, the expense is justified by the amount of time and the number of lives saved. Medical imaging allows doctors to make an instant diagnosis in situation that just 25 years ago would have meant a quick trip to an operating room and a surgeon to explore your vital organs.
Here are details on a few of the common techniques your VA doctor may order for you.
Angiogram - An x-ray of blood vessels which can be seen because the patient receives an injection of dye to outline the vessels on the x-ray.
CAT Scan - (CT Scan) An image produced by a CAT scanner. CT scans differ from conventional x ray by collecting x rays that have passed through the body (those not absorbed by tissue) with an electronic detector mounted on a rotating frame rather than on film.
MRI - An MRI, also known as magnetic resonance imaging, is a pain-free non-invasive medical test used to produce two dimensional images of the structures of the body. The process uses intense magnetic fields to make images of the inside of the body.
Nuclear Medicine Imaging - A branch or specialty of medicine and medical imaging that uses radioactive isotopes (radionuclides) and relies on the process of radioactive decay in the diagnosis and treatment of disease.
PET Scan - Positron emission tomography: PET. A highly specialized imaging technique that uses short-lived radioactive substances to produce three-dimensional colored images of those substances functioning within the body. These images are called PET scans and the technique is termed PET scanning.
X-ray - A photograph of a body structure using x-rays on film.