New Zealand scientists invent first-ever colour X-ray technology

New Delhi : In a major development in the field of medical science, New Zealand scientists have introduced the first-ever 3-D, colour X-ray on a human, using a technique that assures to improve the field of medical diagnostics, said Europe's CERN physics lab which add to imaging technology.

The new X-ray machine is based on the traditional black-and-white X-ray which incorporates particle-tracking technology developed for CERN's Large Hadron Collider, which discovered the elusive Higgs Boson particle in 2012.

"This colour X-ray imaging technique could produce clearer and more accurate pictures and help doctors give their patients more accurate diagnoses," said a CERN statement.

The CERN technology, named as Medipix, works like a camera detecting and counting individual sub-atomic particles as they smash together with pixels while its shutter is open.

The new device allows for high-resolution, high-contrast pictures.

The machine's "small pixels and accurate energy resolution meant that this new imaging tool is able to get images that no other imaging tool can achieve," said developer Phil Butler of the University of Canterbury.

According to the CERN, the colourX-ray images very clearly show the difference between bone, muscle and cartilage. For instances, the position and size of cancerous tumours can be detected easily through this technology.

For now, the colour X-ray technology is being commercialised by a New Zealand company ‘ MARS Bioimaging’, linked to the universities of Otago and Canterbury which played a great role in its invention.