Window on the body: CT scans become art

Radiologist Kai-hung Fung makes beautiful and informative art from the CT (computed tomography) scans of his patients, digitally manipulating them to look more appealing. His image of the inside of our sinuses won the 2007 International Science and Engineering Visualization Challenge. See this and some of his more recent works in our gallery.

What lies behind our nose?'

This is the winning image of the 2007 International Science and Engineering Visualization Challenge.

The original CT scan was taken from a 33-year-old Chinese woman who came in to have her thyroid examined.

The 3D image is digitally reconstructed from many millimetre-thick 2D X-ray "slices" taken in the CT scanner. 182 slices are stacked together here, allowing us to look upward at her nasal passages from beneath her head.

The bones, soft tissue and fat have been removed from the image, leaving just the cast of the sinuses. When you go to the link there is a slide show. LINK

(Image: Kai-hung Fung)