History & Decolonization of Medical Imaging – Key Vocabulary

A comprehensive set of vocabulary flashcards summarizing key people, discoveries, and technological milestones in the historical development and decolonization narrative of medical imaging modalities.

Radiography

Medical imaging technique that uses x-rays to create static projection images of anatomy.

Fluoroscopy

Real-time x-ray imaging that allows dynamic visualization; image intensification introduced in 1960.

Tomography

Imaging method that blurs out structures above and below a focal plane to obtain a sectional image; forerunner of CT and breast tomosynthesis.

Computed Tomography (CT)

Cross-sectional imaging modality that reconstructs x-ray projections into slices using computer algorithms.

Mammography

Low-dose x-ray imaging of breast tissue, clinically adopted in the 1960s to detect micro-calcifications.

Interventional Radiology

Image-guided, minimally invasive diagnostic and therapeutic procedures such as angiography and angioplasty.

Sonography (Ultrasound)

Imaging that employs high-frequency sound waves produced by piezoelectric crystals to visualize soft tissues.

Echocardiography

Ultrasound technique specialized for assessing cardiac structure and function.

Nuclear Medicine

Modality that images and treats disease using radiopharmaceuticals emitting gamma rays or positrons.

Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI)

Imaging based on nuclear magnetic resonance of hydrogen atoms, producing detailed soft-tissue contrast.

Wilhelm Conrad Roentgen

Physicist credited with the 1895 discovery of x-rays, launching the field of radiography.

Cathode Rays

Streams of electrons observed in vacuum tubes; foundational to x-ray discovery.

Francis Hauksbee

Early 18th-century scientist who observed hand images on electrified glass globes, hinting at fluorescence.

William Crookes

Demonstrated that cathode rays cast shadows and fog photographic plates (1879); coined the term ‘cathode rays.’

Johann Puluj

Austro-Hungarian physicist whose 1880–1882 work on ‘Radiant Electromatter’ likely produced x-rays before Roentgen.

Arthur Goodspeed

Recorded the first radiograph in 1890 while studying electrical discharge and unintentionally exposing plates.

Nikola Tesla

Investigated high-frequency gas discharges and early biologic effects of x-radiation.

Philipp Lenard

Studied cathode rays outside the tube, demonstrating their photographic and magnetic properties; almost shared the first Nobel with Roentgen.

Charles Barkla

Identified characteristic x-ray radiation unique to different elements.

Herbert Jackson

Developed the first vacuum x-ray tube, improving beam quality.

Carl Schleussner

Created glass coatings that became precursors to modern x-ray film emulsions.

William Coolidge

Invented the hot-cathode vacuum tube, the basis of the modern x-ray tube capable of short exposures.

Marie Curie

Pioneered mobile x-ray units during WWI and shared a Nobel Prize for radioactivity research.

Elizabeth Fleischmann

Self-taught radiographer who used x-rays during the Spanish-American War; died of radiation-induced cancer.

Rose M. Pegues-Perkins

First African-American to earn ARRT certification in radiography (1936).

Egas Moniz

Performed the first cerebral angiogram in 1927; awarded the 1949 Nobel Prize in Medicine.

Werner Forssmann

Carried out the first human cardiac catheterization on himself in 1929; Nobel laureate 1956.

Charles Dotter

Performed the first percutaneous transluminal angioplasty of the femoral artery in 1964.

Agustin Castellanos

Developed the first practical angiocardiography techniques.

Pablo Mirizzi

Introduced intraoperative cholangiography to visualize bile ducts.

Andre Bocage

WWI radiologist who theorized imaging at multiple angles to improve visualization—precursor to tomography.

Alessandro Vallebona

Produced the first actual tomogram (sectional x-ray) of anatomy.

Bernard des Plantes

Built mechanical tomography devices in 1931–1936 resembling modern units.

Gustav Grossmann

Designed an arcing tomography system in 1935 that influenced subsequent developments.

EMI

British company (funded by Beatles’ record profits) that built the first commercial CT scanner.

Godfrey Hounsfield

EMI engineer who built the first CT scanner; CT number scale bears his name.

Stefan Kaczmarz

Mathematician who formulated the Algebraic Reconstruction Technique (1937) later used in CT.

Allan Cormack

Independently developed CT reconstruction algorithms; shared 1979 Nobel Prize with Hounsfield.

William Oldendorf

Proposed and patented the concept of CT in 1963 after publishing theoretical groundwork in 1961.

Shinji Takahashi

Used sinograms in the 1940s to create sectional images, a CT precursor.

Gabriel Frank

Patented a filtered back-projection method for CT image formation in 1940.

Johann Radon

Mathematician who, in 1917, derived formulas enabling image reconstruction from projection data.

Robert Ledley

Built the first full-body CT scanner, expanding CT beyond head imaging.

Robert Salomon

Proposed x-ray imaging of the breast in 1913, pioneering mammography.

Stafford Warren

Produced early mammographic images in 1930.

Raul Leborgne

Uruguayan radiologist who identified breast microcalcifications in the 1950s and used compression.

Jean Gros

Designed the first dedicated mammography unit with molybdenum anode/filter in 1965.

John Wolfe

Introduced xeromammography commercially in 1971, enhancing breast imaging contrast.

Image Intensifier

Device introduced to fluoroscopy in 1960 that amplified x-ray images for brighter, less dose-intensive viewing.

Ian Donald

Produced the first clinically useful ultrasound image in 1958.

Piezoelectric Materials

Substances (discovered by Jacques & Pierre Curie, 1877) that convert mechanical stress into electric signals—core of ultrasound transducers.

Christian Doppler

Described the frequency shift of waves relative to motion (1842), enabling flow measurement in ultrasound.

Karl Dussik

Attempted to image the brain with ultrasound in the 1940s, coining ‘hyperphonography.’

Douglas Howry

Created water-bath ultrasound scanners (1952, 1954) yielding cross-sectional images.

Shigeo Satomura

Demonstrated vascular Doppler ultrasound imaging in the 1960s.

Wolf Keidel, Inge Edler & Hellmuth Hertz

Collaborated to pioneer echocardiography using ultrasound reflections from heart structures.

Ernest Rutherford

Separated alpha and beta radiation and identified beta particles as electrons—foundational to nuclear medicine.

Radioactivity

Spontaneous emission of particles or energy from unstable nuclei; discovered by Becquerel and the Curies.

Henri Becquerel

Discovered natural radioactivity in uranium salts (1896); Nobel Prize 1903.

Jean & Irene Joliot-Curie

Synthesized radioactive iodine in 1935, enabling diagnostic/therapeutic nuclear medicine.

Technetium-99m

Most widely used diagnostic radionuclide, created by Carlo Perrier & Emilio Segrè in 1937.

Benedict Cassen

Captured the first nuclear medicine images in 1950 using radiotracers.

Hal Anger

Invented the scintillation (gamma) camera, cornerstone of nuclear imaging.

SPECT

Single-Photon Emission Computed Tomography providing 3-D gamma-ray imaging; advanced by David Kuhl & Roy Edwards.

Gordon Brownell

Produced the first PET image of the brain in 1971.

PET

Positron Emission Tomography that images metabolic processes via annihilation photons.

David Townsend & Ron Nutt

Developed the first commercial PET/CT hybrid scanner in 1998.

Nuclear Magnetic Resonance (NMR)

Phenomenon where atomic nuclei absorb and re-emit radiofrequency energy in a magnetic field.

Isidor Rabi

Awarded 1944 Nobel Prize for discovering NMR in molecular beams.

Edward Purcell & Felix Bloch

Shared 1952 Nobel Prize for applying NMR spectroscopy in bulk materials.

Raymond Damadian

Proposed NMR for medical imaging (1971) and built the first commercial MRI scanner at Fonar.

Paul Lauterbur

Introduced magnetic field gradients enabling spatial encoding; produced first MR image in 1973.

Peter Mansfield

Developed echo-planar imaging and applied Fourier transformation for rapid MR image formation; co-Nobel 2003.

Gradient (MRI)

Linear magnetic field variation that encodes spatial information into MR signal frequencies.

Echo-Planar Imaging

Rapid MRI acquisition technique collecting an entire image after a single RF excitation.

Fourier Transformation (MRI)

Mathematical process converting time-domain MR signals into spatial frequency data to reconstruct images.