X-RAY RESEARCH

Taranaki Daily News, 10 November 1932, Page 7

X-RAY RESEARCH

CANADIAN DISCOVERIES.

ABDOMINAL DISORDERS.

“A new development in the use of Xrays in the diagnosis of intra-abdominal disease has been engaging the attention of research workers fOr some months, and the. successful experiences of a team consisting of a surgeon, a pathologist, and an X-ray expert in Toronto, have just been published in the Canadian Medical Association Journal,” reports the medical correspondent of an English paper. Certain scientists in Germany first discovered that a metal called thorium could be injected into the circulation in a colloid solution without doing any harm, and it was deposited in certain parts of the body, which then became temporarily opaque to X-rays. The work in Canada fully confirmed this, and in all 18 patients have been investigated with this new method without any untoward result. It must be remembered that, the penetrating powers of X-rays are relative. In the early days of radiography the sole use of this method of diagnosis was to show up the bones, which were more dense than surrounding structures. The next developments came when bismuth was given by the mouth and the outline of the stomach seen ou the X-ray screen. Of recent years satisfactory methods of introducing contrast material to show lip the structure of the lungs, gallbladder, and .kidneys have been elaborated, but until the use of thorium no satisfactory shadows of the liver or spleen could be obtained. The liver and spleen are especially rich in certain special qells (“reticuloendothelial”), which have the property of taking up substances from the blood stream, and thus the thorium given into the veins gradually becomes accumulated in these cells. A 25 per cent, solution of thorium dioxide has been used, given in three daily doses of about one ounce (25 cubic centimetres), and on the fourth day X-ray pictures are taken. The metal is deposited mainly in the liver and spleen, but is found to a lesser extent in various glands and in the bone marrow.

A' still further use of the special preparation of thorium, which has been employed, is to demonstrate exactly the configuration of the blood vessels of the brain. The harmlessness of the injections has led tp their being used into the carotid arteries, and this will probably mean, in the future, a big advance in the accurate diagnosis of obscure brain, tumours. In the meantime the X-ray appearances of the liver and spleen, as demonstrated in this way, will be of considerable ■ value in solving problems of abdominal disorders. Previously the only way to make a diagnosis has been what the surgeons call an “exploratory laparotomy,” which means to take a look inside. The new discoveries suggest that this will be possible without the necessity of an operatjpn. \ .... It is of interest that most of the work-in Toronto ; has been carried put. in the laboratory of Professor- Banting, ths discoverer.