@RADIOLO_GG
Exposing historical insights, and how x-rays and radiology helped to shape art, language, politics and culture. Radiology is much more than a medical marvel!
#1 BONE MUSIC
☭ 🎺🥁 “Music on the ribs” in the Soviet Union. Knowledge of such “bone music” was largely obscure even in Russia, until Stephen Coates from @realtuesdayweld researched this systematically. He came across one of these records by chance at a flea market in St Petersburg and his intrigue led him to set up the X-ray audio project, publishing a book, producing a documentary, and touring an exhibition around the world.
#2 AIR STUDY
Historically regarded as one of the most feared procedures in diagnostic medicine and described by patients to be akin to torture, Pneumoencephalography was often complemented by X-ray Tomography to improve visualisation of the brain. In the era before CT and MRI scans , these techniques — however unpleasant and imperfect — provided a crucial, if limited, window into intracranial disease and helped guide neurosurgical decisions. That both techniques are now obsolete stands as a testament not only to the extraordinary progress of medical imaging, but also to the resilience of the patients who endured them.
In The Exorcist (1973), Reagan MacNeil (Linda Blair) is seemingly demonically possessed and gets subjected to tests to decipher where specifically her affliction sits in terms of the realms of science and superstition. Director William Friedkin conducted in depth research to accurately present emerging scientific procedures and Catholic ritual. Pneumoencephalography is one of the medical tests recommended for Reagan to try pin down a brain lesion.
This movie, adapted from William Blatty’s novel (1971), created media frenzy, with increased reports of demon possessions, audience members convulsing and vomiting at screenings, and Catholic moral outrage. It was released in a context of trauma from the Vietnam War and the Watergate scandal, counterculture movements of civil rights and women’s rights, and alternative approaches to science and religion. It was also in the aftermath of the Second Ecumenical Council of the Vatican (1962-1965), which addressed the relationship between the Catholic Church and the modern world. It was an exploration of the social and cultural issues of the long 1960s – an era where people were questioning central authorities and institutions, including government, church, business, and the sciences.
#3 TOY MANUFACTURING
This is a bespoke Interventional Neuroradiology themed Playmobil set. The arteriovenous malformation (AVM) on the screen - a Spetzler-Martin Grade III with feeders from the pericallosal artery and direct deep venous drainage - was successfully treated endovascularly using liquid embolic agent.
Not long after the discovery of X-rays in 1895, toy manufacturing quickly reflected the cultural fascination with this technology. By the early 1900s, toy makers were already producing “X-ray vision” spectacles and X-ray themed post cards. By the 1920s–1930s, they produced X-ray themed “magic toys” and science kits. Post-WWII, science kits exploded in popularity. By the 1950s “atomic-age” boom, some children’s science sets included Geiger counters (radiation detectors). As hospitals modernised in the 1980s, toy medical kits began including even more realistic representations of x-ray rooms, scanners, and surgical equipment.
#4 SCANNING THE PHAROAHS
Radiology enabled the systematic study of royal mummies, revealing mummification as an evolving, technically sophisticated practice. Through detailed analysis of excerebration and resin application, radiological studies shifted the field from conjecture to evidence-based reconstruction — most notably in the work of Egyptian neuroradiologist and paleoradiologist Dr Sahar Saleem.
Egyptian mummies have been extensively studied using radiographic techqniues of x-rays and CT scans. Ancient Egyptians practiced embalming to preserve their dead. While some organs were regarded as having a central spiritual significance, others did not. The heart for example, regarded as the seat of intelligence, emotion, and morality was essential for judgement in the afterlife, and therefore preserved. The brain on the other hand had no such significance, and therefore its preservation was unnecessary. More importantly, if left inside the skull, it liquifies rapidly and actually accelerates putrefaction and disfigurement of the head and face. Since facial integrity mattered for recognition in the afterlife, ancient Egyptians found a way to remove the brain without much delay and without disfiguring the face. This process appears more consistent in the Royal mummies, which have been extensively studied with CT scans.
They did this through the process of ‘excerebration’ - using hooked instruments (iron or bronze) passed through the nose, and breaching a thin bone at the front base of the skull known as the cribriform plate they directly accessed and removed the brain. This was followed by pouring a mixture of warmed liquid resins through the nose into the skull forming a protective internal cast that usually sedimented at the back of the head. This seems to be the case with all royal mummies studied, except for Tutankaman who has two separate sedimented resins with different CT densities, one at the back and another the top of the head, determined then by the position of the head while the resin was poured and cured. The face was meticulously preserved and prepared into a cosmetic ideal with smooth skin and youthful proportions for eternal existence.
Preserving the head and the face meant preserving their identity for the afterlife which was an essential spiritualistic ritual.
#5 CEREBRAL ANGIOGRAPHY
Cerebral angiography emerged as a means of localising brain lesions before evolving into a cornerstone of neurovascular imaging. Developed in the 1920s, it enabled more targeted neurosurgical planning in the absence of CT and MRI. In 1927, neurologist António Egas Moniz collaborated with neurosurgeon Pedro Almeida Lima to perform the first successful cerebral angiogram (aka. arterial encephalogram) in a living patient. This was developed specifically to localise brain lesions by evaluating displacement of the blood vessels in the brain, effectively as an alternative to ventriculography and pneumoencephalography. It was performed by puncturing the internal carotid artery at the neck or later by surgically exposing the same carotid artery to inject a die and capture arteries on x-rays of the head.
Inevitably, the technique proved fundamental to the assessment of neurovascular disease and, to this day, remains a gold standard - now far safer and more sophisticated. It is now a much safer procedure, often performed by puncturing a peripheral artery in the arm or leg and advancing a catheter into the vessels in the neck, with much improved imaging capabilities and image quality.
The cerebral angiogram scene from the Exorcist (1973) is very true to the real procedure as it was performed then. Anecdotally, audiences at the time found its realism deeply unsettling, more so than imagery of diabolical possessions, causing many to faint, vomit, and leave the theatre.