UNIT 26 MEDICAL TECHNOLOGY

1. Read the text:

                                    Physics Aids Medicine

   Since the discovery of X-rays fundamental physics has been a source of ideas for radiography and medical imaging. A new imaging method firmly rooted in particle physics was chosen by Time magazine as one of its "Inventions of the Year 2000". These days, innovation is flourishing in every industry. The variety of ideas currently being generated was illustrated last year by the news magazine Time, when it selected three special areas − consumer technology, medical science, and basic industry −  in which to put new developments to the vote as "Inventions of the Year". The award-winning invention in the medical science category was a scanner that combined the advantages of computer tomography with positron emission tomography (PET). The use of these tech­niques, which depend on detecting and analysing electromagnetic radiation (X-rays or gamma rays respectively), show that detection techniques from particle physics have made, and continue to make, essential contributions to medical science.

Soon after their discovery by Roentgen in 1895, X-rays were being used for monitoring bones, teeth and other dense organic matter, thereby revolutionizing medical diagnostics and introducing a new science − radiography.

Then came nuclear medicine. George de Hevesy was awarded the 1943 Nobel Prize for Chemistry for his invention of radioactive trac­ers, in which small doses of radioactive material are administered to patients to follow the metabolic functioning of organs such as the kidneys or thyroid gland. The impact of the technique was so great that the supply of suitable radioactive isotopes went on to become an industry in its own.

Although they provided valuable new information, these tech­niques, like conventional X-ray photographs, could only reveal a two-dimensional image of a three-dimensional body, and interpretation could therefore be difficult. The imaging capabilities of X-rays were dramatically boosted by the 1972 invention of the computer-assisted tomography (CT) scanner, in which a fan-like beam of X-rays rotates round a patient, providing a two-dimensional picture of a "slice" of their body. A com­plete three-dimensional image can be built up by scanning the body slice by slice. Tomography can be combined with nuclear medicine, for example, in single-photon emission computed tomography (SPECT), which maps the internal distribution of the tracer.

   Many artificial isotopes emit positrons, the antiparticles of electrons. In the early 1950s it was discovered that these isotopes offered new possibilities for nuclear medicine. A positron, once it has been produced, is quickly snapped up by a neighbouring matter particle − usually an electron. This annihil­ation of the positron and the electron produces a characteristic fin­gerprint −  two 511 keV photons (gamma rays) shooting out in exactly opposite directions. By picking up these pairs, it is possible to pin­point where the positron annihilations occurred. The new science of PET was born, in which the annihilation signals track a patient's metabolism, revealing, for example, the way in which the brain reacts to stimuli. Since its inception, PET technology has profited from new devel­opments in radiation detection, first using sodium iodide crystals, then using materials such as bismuth germanate (BGO), which offered better performance, and more recently lutetium oxyorthosilicate, which is faster and gives more light output than BGO.

NOTE: tracer – изотопный индикатор; thyroid gland – щитовидная железа; object-oriented programming technology – технология объектно-ориентированного программирования; hadron – адрон;  pinpoint – точно указать

2. In the text find equivalents to the phrases:

- разнообразие выдвигаемых в настоящее время идей;

- изобретение, удостоенное награды в категории медицинской науки;

-  использовать рентгеновские лучи;

- меченые атомы;

- влияние этого метода;

- возможности рентгеновских изображений;

- давать возможность получения двумерной картины среза;

- создавать карту внутреннего распределения меченых атомов;

- можно точно указать место, где произошла аннигиляция

 

VOCABULARY STUDY

3. Find the antonyms:

 

1. innovative; 2. electron; 3. valuable; 4. artificial;  5. conventional;

6. emission; 7. award; 8. acceleration; 9. capable; 10 internal

 

a) deceleration; b) worthless; c)obsolete; d) unable; e) positron;   f) punish;

g) external; h) odd; i) natural; k) annihilation;

 

4. Write collocations  by matching  the words from the top line with the words from the bottom line:

1) current   2) artificial  3) computer 4) gamma  5) new 6) three-dimensional

7) patient's 8) bismuth 9) organic 10) medical

 

a) metabolism b) devel­opments  c) germinate d) diagnostics e) tomography                                              f) matter g) image h) ideas  i) isotopes   k) rays

 

TALKING POINT

5. Discuss in pairs:

· the award-winning invention in the medical science category;

· the shortcomings of conventional X-ray photographs;

· scientific bases of PET;

· new possibilities provided by PET;

 

MAKING PRESENTATIONS

6. Prepare Power Point presentation about PET paying attention why this technology is important for the mankind. You may use phrases from Appendix 1.

WORD FORMATION

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