tomography
Meaning of tomography: Tomography is the general technique of producing cross sectional images of the body's interior, applied across several different imaging technologies.
Definition of tomography
Tomography is a general term for imaging techniques that produce detailed cross sectional pictures, or slices, of a structure's interior rather than a single flat image of the whole. A computer reconstructs these cross sectional images from data collected as the imaging equipment passes around or through the body.
Computed tomography, commonly known as a CT scan, is the most familiar application, using a rotating x-ray source and detector to build cross sectional images of internal organs and tissue. Other imaging technologies, including magnetic resonance imaging and positron emission tomography, also produce tomographic, or sectional, images, though each relies on a different underlying physical principle to generate its pictures.
Because tomography describes the general strategy of imaging the body in cross sectional slices rather than one specific machine or technology, the particular tomographic method used depends on the structure being examined and the clinical question being asked.
Used in a sentence
A tomography study of the chest was ordered to further evaluate the finding on the initial x-ray.
Good to know
Tomography names a general imaging strategy rather than a single technology, so a tomographic image can come from computed tomography, magnetic resonance imaging, or other methods that each work differently.
Word origin
Where “tomography” comes from
Formed from Greek tomos, meaning a cutting or section, and graphein, meaning to write or record.