THE APPLICATION OF TRANSITION RADIATION TO NON-INVASIVE ANIGIOGRAPHY

THE PURPOSE OF THE PROPOSED EXPERIMENT IS TO CONDUCT AN EVALUATION OF TRANSITION RADIATION FOR THE NON-INVASIVE ASSESSMENT OF CORONARY ARTERY DISEASE IN HUMANS. THE HIGH BRIGHTNESS AND LASER-LIKE COLLIMATION OF TRANSITION RADIATION, MAKE IT AN IDEAL SOURCE OF 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. WE PROPOSE TO DEMONSTRATE THAT TRANSITION RADIATION FROM HIGH-DENSITY TUNGSTEN FOILS, UTILIZING ELECTRONS FROM A MODERATE ENERGY ACCELERATOR (100 TO 300 MEV) IS A VIABLE AND LESS COSTLY ALTERNATIVE SOURCE OF HARD X-RAYS THAN SYNCHROTRON RADIATION.