THE APPLICATION OF CHANNELING RADIATION TO NONINVASIVE ANGIOGRAPHY

THE PURPOSE OF THIS WORK IS TO CONDUCT AN EVALUATION OF CHANNELING RADIATION FOR THE NONINVASIVE ASSESSMENT OF CORONARY ARTERY DISEASE IN HUMANS. THE HIGH BRIGHTNESS, LASER-LIKE COLLIMATION, LINEAR POLARIZATION, AND QUASIMONO- CHROMATICITY OF CHANNELING RADIATION MAKE IT AN IDEAL SOURCEOF X-RAYS FOR MEDICAL APPLICATIONS. RECENT EXPERIMENTS USING SYNCHROTRON EMISSION AS A SOURCE OF X-RAYS, COUPLED WITH IN VIVO DETECTION OF IODINE BY DIGITAL SUBTRACTION ANGIOGRAPHY, HAVE PRODUCED DRAMATIC VISUALIZATIONS OF THE CORONARY ARTERIES IN CANINE SUBJECTS. RESEARCHERS WILL DEMONSTRATE THAT CHANNELING RADIATION FROM THIN SILICON CRYSTALS, UTILIZING ELECTRONS FROM A MODERATE ENERGY ACCELERATOR (30 MEV), IS A VIABLE AND LESS COSTLY ALTERNA- TIVE SOURCE OF HARD X-RAYS THAN SYNCHROTRON RADIATION. THE QUASIMONOCHROMATIC PROPERTIES OF CHANNELING RADIATION WOULD BE EXPLOITED TO MAXIMIZE THE SHARPNESS OF THE DIAGNOSTIC IMAGES AND TO MINIMIZE THE RADIATION DOSE TO THE PATIENT.