Courtesy of Adaptix Ltd, and inspired by recent Burns Night poetry, these images show how X-ray tomosynthesis can be used to give 3D information. In a normal 2D X-ray [1] bones and soft tissue overlap making analysis difficult. However, if X-rays are fired from different positions [3] then parallax effects can be used to derive slices at different depths through the 3D object [2a, 2b].

Adaptix Ltd (based in Oxford and BioCity Scotland in Motherwell) are developing a mobile 3D flat panel X-ray source with an array of many miniature X-ray emitters to achieve tomosynthesis with no moving parts for dental, orthopaedic or chest imaging. The radiation dose, cost and size are all an order of magnitude less than that of a CT scanner, giving the opportunity to bring 3D imaging to the patient (…or the wee, sleekit, cow’rin, tim’rous beastie in this case).