History of Fluoroscopy

Fluoroscopy's origins and radiography's origins can both be traced back to 8

November 1895, when Wilhelm Röntgen noticed a barium platinocyanide screen fluorescing
as a result of being exposed to what he would later call X-rays . Within months of this
discovery, the first crude fluoroscopes were created. These experimental fluoroscopes were
simply thin cardboard screens that had been coated on the inside with a layer of fluorescent
metal salt, attached to a funnel-shaped cardboard eyeshade which excluded room light with
a viewing eyepiece which the user held up to his eye. The fluoroscopic image obtained in
this way was quite faint. Even when finally improved and commercially introduced for
diagnostic imaging, the limited light produced from the fluorescent screens of the earliest
commercial scopes necessitated that a radiologist sit for a period in the darkened room
where the imaging procedure was to be performed, to first accustom his eyes to increase
their sensitivity to perceive the faint image. The placement of the radiologist behind the
screen also resulted in significant dosing of the radiologist

Fluoroscopy is an imaging technique that uses X-rays to obtain real-time moving

images of the interior of an object. In its primary application of medical imaging, a
fluoroscope allows a physician to see the internal structure and function of a patient, so that
the pumping action of the heart or the motion of swallowing, for example, can be watched. In
its simplest form, a fluoroscope consists of an X-ray source and a fluorescent screen,
between which a patient is placed. However, since the 1950s most fluoroscopes have
included X-ray image intensifiers and cameras as well, to improve the image's visibility and
make it available on a remote display screen. Fluoroscopy is similar to radiography and X-
ray computed tomography (X-ray CT) in that it generates images using X-rays. The original
difference was that radiography fixed still images on film whereas fluoroscopy provided live
moving pictures that were not stored. The use of X-rays, a form of ionizing radiation, requires
the potential risks from a procedure to be carefully balanced with the benefits of the
procedure to the patient. Because the patient must be exposed to a continuous source of X-
rays instead of a momentary pulse, a fluoroscopy procedure generally subjects a patient to a
higher absorbed dose of radiation than an ordinary (still) radiograph.In the first half of the
20th century, shoe-fitting fluoroscopes were used in shoe stores, but their use was
discontinued because it is no longer considered acceptable to use radiation exposure,
however small the dose, for nonessential purposes. Much research has been directed
toward reducing radiation exposure, and recent advances in fluoroscopy technology such as
digital image processing and flat panel detectors, have resulted in much lower radiation
doses than former procedures. The reason for higher doses in medical applications is that
they are more demanding about tissue contrast, and for the same reason they sometimes
require contrast media.