Using X-ray computed tomography to predict carcass leanness in pigs

Just one hundred years ago. Wilhelm Conrad Rontgen published his paper in Wurzburg describing X-rays and their effects, earning him the first Nobel Prize in Physics, presented in 1901. X-ray based diagnostic equipment revolutionized human diagnostics. A new milestone in the development of radiology was when Godfrey Hotmufield proposed to get additional anatomical information from a cross-sectional plane of the body by computer aided mathematical synthesis of an image from X-ray transmission data obtained from many different angles through the plane in consideration. The idea of the X-ray Computer Aided Tomography (CAT) was born, and the dramatic development of X-ray CAT imaging technology began, enhancing efficiency and scope of human diagnostics in human medicine. The numbers used to characterize the X-ray absorption in each picture element (pixel) of the CAT image are called ''CT'' or Hounsfield numbers (Hounsfield, 1979). The Nobel Prize was awarded to Hounsfield in 1979. X-ray Computer Aided Tomography system and software used were developed for humen medical purposes - mainly to detect anatomical physiological disorders - by all leading high-tech manufacturers in the world. As early as 1980, the potential of the new technique to be utilized in animal science was first recognized in Norway (Skjervold et al., 1981). In 1982, the Agricultural University of Norway acquired a Siemens Somatom 2 CAT system, and pioneering work started to apply X-ray CAT techniques in animal science. Based on the promising results obtained and published by the ''Norwegian school'' (Sehested, 1 984 Vangen, 1984 Allen and Vangen, 1984: Vangen and Standal, 1984), a research project proposal was prepared for the Hungarian Ministry of Agriculture and Food and the World Bank in 1985 to set up a digital imaging center at our Institute. The project was approved in 1986 (Horn, 1991a). The new digital imaging and diagnostic center started its operation in 1990, equipped first with a Siemens Somatom DR type X-ray CAT and later with MRI and Spiral X-ray CAT and ultrasound scanner systems to serve both animal science, and human diagnostics and research