Lying on your back in a hospital scanning machine for 45 minutes isn’t exactly fun. But patients at Royal Brompton Hospital in London have it better now. A new scanner, thanks to advanced technology, has reduced that time to just 15 minutes.
The secret lies in a new material called cadmium zinc telluride (CZT). This material helps produce detailed 3D images, making lung exams faster and clearer. Dr. Kshama Wechalekar, head of nuclear medicine there, calls it a “revolution” in medical imaging.
CZT isn’t just for medical scans; it also finds uses in X-ray telescopes, radiation detectors, and airport security scanners. As demand rises, suppliers like Kromek, a British company, are in high demand. They produce some of the few CZT detectors available globally.
Advanced scanners like the one at Royal Brompton work by detecting gamma rays emitted from a radioactive substance injected into the patient. The new technology allows doctors to reduce the radioactive dose by about 30%. While CZT has been around for decades, producing it at the scale needed today is still a challenge. According to Arnab Basu, Kromek’s CEO, making CZT is complex and involves weeks of careful processing.
The process starts with heating a special powder in furnaces that look like server farms. This transforms the powder into a single crystal structure that can detect tiny particles with high accuracy. Previously, older scanners required more steps, leading to less precise results.
Dr. Basu explains this newer technology has also been applied in other fields, like explosives detection in airport security. The hope is to use CZT in hand luggage screening in the future.
However, getting CZT isn’t always easy. Researchers like Henric Krawczynski from Washington University hope to obtain thin pieces for telescopes that study the universe. He notes that finding CZT can be tough due to rising demand and limited suppliers.
Meanwhile, at the Diamond Light Source in the UK, an upgrade costing half a billion pounds is set to enhance its capabilities with CZT detectors. This facility produces high-brightness X-rays used to analyze materials like aluminum. The upgrade will ensure they can keep up with the intense output of their upgraded systems.
With ongoing advancements and challenges in sourcing CZT, the future of medical imaging and other scientific fields looks promising yet complex. For scientists and medical professionals, this material is key to enhancing our understanding of health and the universe.
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