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| #REDIRECT [[X-rays]] | | #REDIRECT [[X-rays]] |
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| ==Medical uses==
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| [[Image:X-Ray Skull.jpg|right|thumb|150px||X-Ray Image of the Paranasal Sinuses, Lateral Projection]]
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| Since Röntgen's discovery that X-rays can identify bony structures, X-rays have been developed for their use in [[medical imaging]]. [[Radiology]] is a specialized field of [[medicine]]. Radiographers employ [[radiography]] and other techniques for [[diagnostic imaging]]. Indeed, this is probably the most common use of X-ray technology.
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| X-rays are especially useful in the detection of pathology of the [[bone|skeletal system]], but are also useful for detecting some disease processes in [[soft tissue]]. Some notable examples are the very common [[chest X-ray]], which can be used to identify lung diseases such as [[pneumonia]], [[lung cancer]] or [[pulmonary edema]], and the [[abdominal X-ray]], which can detect [[ileus]] (blockage of the [[intestine]]), free air (from visceral perforations) and free fluid (in [[ascites]]). In some cases, the use of X-rays is debatable, such as [[gallstone]]s (which are rarely [[radiopaque]]) or [[kidney stone]]s (which are often visible, but not always). Also, traditional plain X-rays pose very little use in the imaging of soft tissues such as the [[brain]] or [[muscle]]. Imaging alternatives for soft tissues are [[computed axial tomography]] (CAT or CT scanning), [[magnetic resonance imaging]] (MRI) or [[medical ultrasonography|ultrasound]]. Since 2005, X-rays are listed as a [[carcinogen]] by the U.S. government.<ref>[http://ntp.niehs.nih.gov/ntp/roc/toc11.html 11th Report on Carcinogens<!-- Bot generated title -->]</ref>
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| [[Radiotherapy]], a curative medical intervention, now used almost exclusively for [[cancer]], employs higher energies of radiation.
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| The efficiency of X-ray tubes is less than 2%. Most of the energy is used to heat up the anode.
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| ==Other uses==
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| Other notable uses of X-rays include
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| *[[X-ray crystallography]] in which the pattern produced by the [[diffraction]] of X-rays through the closely spaced lattice of atoms in a crystal is recorded and then analyzed to reveal the nature of that lattice. A related technique, [[fiber diffraction]], was used by [[Rosalind Franklin]] to discover the [[Double helix|double helical]] structure of [[DNA]]).<ref>{{cite book
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| | last = Kasai
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| | first = Nobutami
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| | authorlink =
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| | coauthors = Masao Kakudo
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| | title = X-ray diffraction by macromolecules
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| | publisher = Kodansha
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| | date = 2005
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| | location = Tokyo
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| | pages = pp291-2
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| | url =
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| | doi =
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| | id =
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| | isbn = 3540253173}}</ref>
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| *[[X-ray astronomy]], which is an observational branch of [[astronomy]], which deals with the study of X-ray emission from celestial objects.
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| *[[X-ray microscope|X-ray microscopic analysis]], which uses [[electromagnetic radiation]] in the soft X-ray band to produce images of very small objects.
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| *[[X-ray fluorescence]], a technique in which X-rays are generated within a specimen and detected. The outgoing energy of the X-ray can be used to identify the composition of the sample.
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| *Paintings are often X-rayed to reveal the [[underdrawing]] and [[pentimento|pentimenti]] or alterations in the course of painting, or by later restorers. Many [[pigment]]s such as [[lead white]] show well in X-ray photographs.
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