Sir Godfrey N Hounsfield
2004; Elsevier BV; Volume: 364; Issue: 9439 Linguagem: Inglês
10.1016/s0140-6736(04)17049-9
ISSN1474-547X
Autores Tópico(s)Radiation Dose and Imaging
ResumoThe co-inventor of the CT scanner, for which he was awarded the 1979 Nobel prize in medicine or physiology. He was born on Aug 29, 1919, in Newark, Nottinghamshire, UK; he died on Aug 12, 2004, aged 84 years.In the decades since John, Paul, George, and Ringo rose to fame, many people have claimed inspiration from The Beatles. But it might truly be said that without them, the CT scanner would never have been invented. The story goes something like this: by 1967, Godfrey Hounsfield had been working for music and electronics company Electrical and Musical Industries (EMI) for 16 years on projects ranging from radar, guided weapons, and the UK's first all-transistor computer. That year, EMI, enriched considerably by the sale of their recording artists The Beatles, gave Hounsfield the funding he needed to work on a project that he later said came to him on one of his many rambling country walks.“One of the suggestions I put forward was connected with automatic pattern recognition … which was eventually to become the EMI-Scanner and the technique of computed tomography”, Hounsfield wrote in his autobiography for the 1979 Nobel prize in medicine or physiology that he shared with Allan Cormack. “As might be expected, the programme involved many frustrations … and some amusing incidents, not least the experiences of travelling across London by public transport carrying bullock's brains for use in evaluation of an experimental scanner rig in the Laboratories.”Cormack had been working on the concept of scanning slices of the body from various angles and rotations. But it was Hounsfield's work on pattern recognition and the use of computers to analyse readings that made the CT scanner possible. “His fundamental contribution was in the reconstruction algorithm for CT, not so much the machine itself—although he did build one”, Allen Elster, editor-in-chief of the Journal of Computer Assisted Tomography, told The Lancet. “In other words, he figured out how to reform the multiple projections of CT data into a coherent image.”Atkinson Morley's Hospital in Wimbledon was the site of the first scanner used clinically by James Ambrose in 1971; in April, 1972, Ambrose demonstrated the technology in a lecture at the Radiological Society of North America (RSNA). “I think when people saw the very first CT images—and they were, by modern standards, not great images—whenever any of us saw those images we realised that radiology was never going to be the same again”, said Brian Lentle, professor emeritus at the University of British Columbia, Vancouver, Canada, and now president of the RSNA. Hounsfield's work had “very early recognition by the radiologic community”, he told The Lancet.“Many of these same techniques are used in sectional imaging using other energies—MRI, PET, SPECT, and others”, said Lentle. “Each of these methods has its strengths and weaknesses, but what they have done is totally changed our ability to diagnose disease.” They have also been invaluable in research, he said, allowing the “ultimate transformation of radiology from an interesting technique in a hospital basement to something that is critical to modern research”.Hounsfield had an early interest in electronics and science. “I constructed electrical recording machines; I made hazardous investigations of the principles of flight, launching myself from the tops of haystacks with a home-made glider; I almost blew myself up during exciting experiments using water-filled tar barrels and acetylene to see how high they could be waterjet propelled”, he wrote in his Nobel autobiography. But: “this was all at the expense of my schooling at Magnus Grammar School in Newark, where they tried hard to educate me but where I responded only to physics and mathematics with any ease and moderate enthusiasm.” In fact, he never attended university. In 1939, as war was breaking out, he joined the Royal Air Force, where he excelled at the study of radio. After the war, he studied at the Faraday House Electrical Engineering College in London.Hounsfield never married, and would say late in life that he had not established a “permanent residence” until aged 60 years. His name lives on in daily radiological practice, Elster said. “Every day, when CT scans are read around the world, radiologists perform measurements of tissue properties on the images producing a number called the ÔHounsfield Unit', or HU”, Elster said. “Every tissue in the body as well as tumours and other diseases have characteristic Hounsfield Units. In other words, we radiologists speak Sir Godfrey's name every day when we read CT scans.” The co-inventor of the CT scanner, for which he was awarded the 1979 Nobel prize in medicine or physiology. He was born on Aug 29, 1919, in Newark, Nottinghamshire, UK; he died on Aug 12, 2004, aged 84 years. In the decades since John, Paul, George, and Ringo rose to fame, many people have claimed inspiration from The Beatles. But it might truly be said that without them, the CT scanner would never have been invented. The story goes something like this: by 1967, Godfrey Hounsfield had been working for music and electronics company Electrical and Musical Industries (EMI) for 16 years on projects ranging from radar, guided weapons, and the UK's first all-transistor computer. That year, EMI, enriched considerably by the sale of their recording artists The Beatles, gave Hounsfield the funding he needed to work on a project that he later said came to him on one of his many rambling country walks. “One of the suggestions I put forward was connected with automatic pattern recognition … which was eventually to become the EMI-Scanner and the technique of computed tomography”, Hounsfield wrote in his autobiography for the 1979 Nobel prize in medicine or physiology that he shared with Allan Cormack. “As might be expected, the programme involved many frustrations … and some amusing incidents, not least the experiences of travelling across London by public transport carrying bullock's brains for use in evaluation of an experimental scanner rig in the Laboratories.” Cormack had been working on the concept of scanning slices of the body from various angles and rotations. But it was Hounsfield's work on pattern recognition and the use of computers to analyse readings that made the CT scanner possible. “His fundamental contribution was in the reconstruction algorithm for CT, not so much the machine itself—although he did build one”, Allen Elster, editor-in-chief of the Journal of Computer Assisted Tomography, told The Lancet. “In other words, he figured out how to reform the multiple projections of CT data into a coherent image.” Atkinson Morley's Hospital in Wimbledon was the site of the first scanner used clinically by James Ambrose in 1971; in April, 1972, Ambrose demonstrated the technology in a lecture at the Radiological Society of North America (RSNA). “I think when people saw the very first CT images—and they were, by modern standards, not great images—whenever any of us saw those images we realised that radiology was never going to be the same again”, said Brian Lentle, professor emeritus at the University of British Columbia, Vancouver, Canada, and now president of the RSNA. Hounsfield's work had “very early recognition by the radiologic community”, he told The Lancet. “Many of these same techniques are used in sectional imaging using other energies—MRI, PET, SPECT, and others”, said Lentle. “Each of these methods has its strengths and weaknesses, but what they have done is totally changed our ability to diagnose disease.” They have also been invaluable in research, he said, allowing the “ultimate transformation of radiology from an interesting technique in a hospital basement to something that is critical to modern research”. Hounsfield had an early interest in electronics and science. “I constructed electrical recording machines; I made hazardous investigations of the principles of flight, launching myself from the tops of haystacks with a home-made glider; I almost blew myself up during exciting experiments using water-filled tar barrels and acetylene to see how high they could be waterjet propelled”, he wrote in his Nobel autobiography. But: “this was all at the expense of my schooling at Magnus Grammar School in Newark, where they tried hard to educate me but where I responded only to physics and mathematics with any ease and moderate enthusiasm.” In fact, he never attended university. In 1939, as war was breaking out, he joined the Royal Air Force, where he excelled at the study of radio. After the war, he studied at the Faraday House Electrical Engineering College in London. Hounsfield never married, and would say late in life that he had not established a “permanent residence” until aged 60 years. His name lives on in daily radiological practice, Elster said. “Every day, when CT scans are read around the world, radiologists perform measurements of tissue properties on the images producing a number called the ÔHounsfield Unit', or HU”, Elster said. “Every tissue in the body as well as tumours and other diseases have characteristic Hounsfield Units. In other words, we radiologists speak Sir Godfrey's name every day when we read CT scans.”
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