Diagnostic Tool Survives Test of Time

An X-ray is the most common imaging test used to help doctors view the inside of the body. Your physician may order an X-ray to diagnose a broken bone, view an area where you are experiencing pain or to monitor the progression of a disease, such as osteoporosis.

X-rays use invisible electromagnetic energy beams to make images of the bone and surrounding soft tissues.While today X-rays are just one of a cadre of imaging modalities available in medicine, their discovery in 1895 was a marvel.

X-rays are an important diagnostic tool, allowing doctors to see inside the human body without surgery.

German physicist Wilhelm Conrad Röntgen was the first person to observe X-rays. Röntgen figured out that X-rays penetrate human flesh but not higher-density substances such as bone or lead and that they can be photographed.

His discovery was labeled a medical miracle and X-rays soon became an important diagnostic tool, allowing doctors to see inside the human body for the first time without surgery.

At NorthBay Healthcare, X-ray services are available at the Centers for Primary Care in Fairfield and Vacaville, at both NorthBay Medical Center and NorthBay VacaValley Hospital, and through Solano Diagnostics Imaging in Fairfield and Vacaville.