A NEW X-RAY SOURCE FOR MEDICAL IMAGING AN D RADIOTHERAPY RESEARCH - SYNCHROTRON-RADIATION

Whether for diagnosis or therapeutic purposes, X-rays have many applic ations in medicine. Synchrotron Radiation sources open new perspective s. This has already been the case for a number of years in molecular a ,ld cellular biology where the scope of absorption and diffraction wor k has been greatly extended. This could also be the case for medical i maging and radiotherapy where the characteristics of the beam (collima tion, stability pur) allow,new approaches in the energy range of radio logical X-rays, namely between 30 keV and 100 keV. Such a source exist s today in Grenoble, with the European Synchrotron Radiation Facility (ESRF). The opening of a beamline dedicated to medical research for wh ole European scientific community is planned for the end of 1996. This beamline, coupled with the ''microbeam'', beamlines, will cover,medic al imaging (angiography, tomodensitometry microtomography, X-ray micro scopy) as well as radiotherapy.