PINUP PATIENT
Radiologists are the reluctant voyeurs of medicine. “We see absurd things all the time,” says John Markisz, of the Cardiac Imaging clinic in New York. “After 20 years, I’m still amazed.” This mentally unstable woman swallowed safety pins to punish herself. The pins were closed and extracted with forceps.
ARTHRITIC HANDS
An X-ray of a patient afflicted with rheumatoid arthritis shows the shadow of the skeleton and allows doctors to chart the progress of therapy. “The emergency room of the future will provide diagnostic information in milliseconds,” says Robert Parkey, a radiologist in Dallas. “But there’ll always be a need for X-rays.”
In an era when today's technological marvel becomes tomorrow's can opener--see anyone gaping in wonder at a fax transmission?--the X-ray image maintains its power to fascinate.
Television, movies, and computer screens can take us to new places, but X-rays still work the magic of making the ...
