scanner
Meaning of scanner: A scanner is an imaging instrument, such as a CT, MRI, or ultrasound machine, that produces detailed pictures of internal body structures.
Definition of scanner
A scanner is a medical instrument that produces images of the inside of the body, used to help diagnose disease or guide treatment. Different types of scanners rely on entirely different physical principles to create these images, even though the general goal of visualizing internal structures is shared across all of them.
A CT scanner uses a rotating x-ray source and computer processing to build detailed cross-sectional images, while an MRI scanner uses a strong magnetic field and radio waves to generate images with particularly clear detail of soft tissue. An ultrasound scanner instead uses high frequency sound waves reflected off internal structures, without using radiation at all.
Because each type of scanner works differently and is better suited to imaging certain tissues than others, the specific scanner chosen for a given situation depends on what structure needs to be examined and what question the images are meant to answer.
Used in a sentence
The patient was scheduled for a CT scanner to further evaluate the abnormal finding.
Good to know
A CT scanner and an MRI scanner both produce detailed cross-sectional images but rely on entirely different physical principles, x-rays versus magnetic fields, which is part of why one may be preferred over the other for a given clinical question.