Cassen, Benedict

In the early 1950s, Benedict Cassen (Figs. 5.4-5.6) at the University of California developed the first rectilinear scanner based on the use of radiotracers produced by a nuclear reactor. Later, Kuhl and Bender invented a method called photorecording of images on x-ray film. 

Fig. 5.4 Benedict Cassen, inventor of the rectilinear scanner In the early 1950s.

In 1951, Hal Anger read in the journal. Nucleonics, of the invention of the rectilinear scanner by Benedict Cassen at UCLA. He thought I can do better than that. He recognized that the mechanical movement of the crystal radiation detector over the patient s body as designed in the Cassen rectilinear scanner was a serious limitation, and set out to develop a gamma ray camera. 

When head irradiation resulted in motor function impairment, Dr. Earl Eldred and an associate undertook a special study to determine if lesions could be localized in muscles as well as in brain tissue. Dr. Benedict Cassen, a physicist, designed a special cone to beam the X rays narrowly on the fetal brain tissue of the rats. Dr. George Mason, an obstetrician, joined us on his day off to perform delicate intraabdominal surgery to expose the heads of the rat fetuses so that we could target the radiation on brain tissue, an essential element of our search for an understanding of how the atomic bomb affected the developing human brain. 

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