Transcript[]
Text reads: The Mysteries of Life with Tim and Moby
A robot, Moby, is shooting lasers from his eyes at Rita's cat, Pickle, as he chases it around the kitchen.
<Zap, zap, zap.>
A boy, Tim, objects to what Moby is doing.
TIM: Moby!
Pickle jumps into Tim's arms for safety.
<Meow!>
Moby approaches Tim and Pickle and then stops. Tim scowls at Moby.
TIM: You know, I promised Rita I'd take care of Pickle while she's away. So you can't run around shooting lasers at him.
Moby shines the green light on Pickle, whom is running it up his body.
<Zip, zip, zip.>
<Meow!>
Pickle jumps from Tim's arms.
TIM: And you can't do whatever that was, either.
Tim reads from the typed letter.
TIM: Dear Tim and Moby, I was watching a hospital TV show and they put a woman into a scary-looking white tube. What's up with that? Sincerely, Nicky. Well, what you probably saw was a body scan. Body scans are used to look inside your body to see if there's anything wrong with you. If there is something wrong, doctors can often pinpoint exactly where and what it is by examining the images produced by the scan.
A sheet of paper drops from Moby's mouth. Tim picks it up and examines it. It contains an x-ray image of Pickle.
TIM: I thought I told you not to do that.
Tim discards the paper.
TIM: There are two major types of body scans. The first type is called a CT scan. CT stands for computed tomography. A CT scanner looks like a big, square donut.
An image shows a CT scanner.
TIM: A person is slid into the donut's hole, and the machine rotates all around them, shooting out x-rays.
A patient is placed into the scanner.
TIM: As the frame rotates the full three-hundred-sixty degrees, a detector records hundreds of images from all angles.
An image shows an interior view of the scanner. The patient lies still while the detector revolves around him.
TIM:These are fed into a computer, which combines the images to create a picture that's like a cross-section, or a slice, of a patient's body.
Images show computers processing the output of a scanner.
TIM: The newest, most advanced CT scanners can even produce 3-D models of your insides.
Images represent the output of a 3-D scanner.
MOBY: Beep.
Tim becomes annoyed.
TIM: No, no. I said they're like slices. CT scans give doctors a detailed view of just about any part of a patient's body without having to cut anyone open. They're one of the key tools doctors use to detect the presence of cancer.
An image shows two doctors examining a series of CT scans.
TIM: If a patient has been in a car accident or other trauma, doctors will often order a CT scan to see if there are any internal injuries.
MOBY: Beep.
TIM: Anyway, another type of full-body scan is called magnetic resonance imaging, or MRI. There are no x-rays in an MRI. Instead, a patient is slid into a long tube that acts like a giant magnet.
An image shows an MRI scanner. A patient is placed into it.
MOBY: Beep.
Metal objects like key rings and tin cans fly onscreen and attach to Moby as though he is magnetized. An image shows a patient inside an MRI scanner. Other images represent the scanner's output.
TIM: Inside an MRI tube, you have to lie very still for a while as radio waves are sent into your body. These waves, along with the magnetic field, cause the hydrogen atoms inside your body to emit weak radio signals of their own.
An image shows a patient inside an MRI scanner. Other images represent the atoms in the patient's body reacting as Tim describes.
TIM: Those signals are measured by a computer and used to create a series of images.
Images show examples of MRI scans.
TIM: Unlike CT scans, MRI scans don't make good images of bone. But they can make much better images of soft tissues than CT scans. Since organs like the brain, heart, lungs, and liver are made of soft tissue, MRI scans can be very useful. And MRI scans can make images from any angle, front to back, top down, side to side, or anything in between.
Images show examples of MRI scans of human organs from various angles.
MOBY: Beep.
TIM: Well, recently doctors have also been using a new type of body scan, called a positron emission tomography scan, or a PET scan for short. PET scans measure the biochemical activity of your body's cells. In a PET scan, a patient is given a small dose of a radioactive chemical. Cells that are particularly active take in more of this chemical. The chemical gives off signals from inside the body, which are measured by a sensor. Since cancer cells tend to be very active, they tend to create the most signals, so PET scans can pinpoint where tumors are. They can also help determine what stage of cancer a person is in and even whether a tumor is cancerous at all.
An animation illustrates a PET scan procedure as Tim describes it. A sheet of paper drops from Moby's mouth.
TIM: Wait a minute. What's this?
Tim picks up the paper and examines it. It contains an x-ray image of Pickle with an action figure in his stomach.
TIM: It looks like Pickle swallowed one of my Thundercats action figures.
He takes an unhappy-looking Pickle into his arms.
TIM: We better take him to the vet right away. Moby, you may have saved this cat's life.
MOBY: Beep.
TIM: Oh...oh, okay. Fine. I'm sorry for asking you not to perform diagnostic procedures on Rita's cat. Now, let's go to the vet!