The new CT scanning system, from Toshiba Medical, combines several
improvements to reduce radiation exposure. The overall body of a CT
scanner is shaped like a large ring. An x-ray tube and a detector spin
separately in the ring, opposite one another, and a patient lies in the
center. X-rays travel through the patient as they are delivered by the
tube and captured by the detectors. The new Toshiba machine has five
times as many detectors as most machines, which means that more of an
organ can be captured at a time, decreasing the number of passes of the
scanner required.