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CT was invented in 1972 by British engineer Godfrey Hounsfield of EMI Laboratories, England and by South Africa-born physicist Allan Cormack of Tufts University, Massachusetts.
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The first scanner installation and patient brain scan was publically announced.
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The body scanner began to be marketed, the first of which was installed at Northwick Park Hospital in London. The first full body scanner in the USA was installed at the Mallinkrodt Institute.
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The 1979 Nobel Prize in Medicine was awarded to Godfrey Hounsfield and Allan McLeod Cormack for their work together on the CT Scanner.
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EBCT was introduced. In this type of CT, rather than moving the tube itself, electron-beam focal point is swept electronically along a tungsten anode in the tube, tracing a large circular arc on its inner surface.
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The matrix size of CT images had grown to 1024x1024, it was previously 80x80 in 1972.
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Multislice scanners were introduced. They use a series of multiple detectors, increasing the speed at which volume can be scanned in comparison to single slices or dual slice scanners.
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The PET/CT scanner, attributed to Dr David Townsend and Dr Nutt was named by TIME Magazine as the medical invention of the year in 2000. PET/CT combines in one single study the functional information of PET with the anatomical information provided by a CT scan. This PET/CT information will enable your physician to pinpoint the exact location of interest and helps in making an accurate diagnosis.
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Siemens introduces a safer and much faster computed tomography scanner, "Somatom Definition Flash" where the scanner employs a special Siemens imaging technique in which two X-ray tubes simultaneously rotate around the body in 0.28 seconds.
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There are now about 6,000 CT scanners installed in the U.S. and about 30,000 installed worldwide.
