Physics in Medical Science

Parashu Ram Poudel

Department of Physics,PN Campus,Pokhara
parashupoudel@hotmail.com

Abstract
The domain of Physics covers vast area of scientific knowledge. Basic research on assemblies of atomic or nuclear radiation and
gyromagnetic moments led to powerful technique for studying molecular structure as well as solid lattices. It led to invention and
development of modern medical diagnostic and theraputic tools which have revolutionized the medical practices. Advancement in
medical researches as seen today will be well-nigh impossible without the use of the finding of Physics. The funding made on Physics
is in fact another way of funding made on human health.

Keywords: radioactivity, crystallography, radioimmune assay, MRI, CAT, PET.

Introduction Applications of Physics in Medical Science

Physics is the science which deals with the study of nature and 1. Understanding the Body at Molecular Level
natural phenomena. It is the most fundamental of all the sciences. The basis for medical practice resides in an nderstanding of
The realms of physics span distance from the sub nuclear world how the body functions. Body works as a result of aggregation
to the whole of the cosmos, and time from less than a billionth of function of the biological molecules. Physics has contributed
of a trillionth of a second to the age of the universe. To study at the level of the molecular structure and its functions. As an
phenomena across these epochal scales, to devise experimental example, proteins are giant molecules which provide cells with
tools that provide more powerful means for viewing nature and to their internal mechanical support. They are also responsible for
create theories that allow us to comprehend what has been seen, all the chemical processes at the core of the life. Biophysicists
are the goals and the achievements of physics. In deepening our have determined exact atomic structure of proteins by X-ray
view of nature, physics has profoundly affected our view because crystallography (the technique for which W L Bragg and W H
of the underlying assumption of Physics that there is an order in the Bragg won the Nobel Prize in Physics in 1915) or by accelerator
natural world and that the human mind can understand that order. technology (A O Lawrence received the Nobel Prize of Physics
By generating new technologies and contributing neighboring in 1939 for inventing the first of these accelerator, the cyclotron).
sciences Physics has helped to transform our daily life, permitting Understanding the structure of complex biological molecules is
a comfort and freedom of action. In the past even in the technically the key to developing new pharmaceuticals. As for example, a
advanced nations, people devoted most of their energy to securing virus enters a cell by penetrating the cell membranes after docking
food and shelter. Physics has done much to mould the shape of to a surface protein by a process that can occur only when the
modern society. The search to understand elementary phenomena shape of the virus fits a lock. Determining the underlying structure
has led to expanded views of all nature and to miraculous of a virus such as common cold virus or HIV opens the possibility
inventions. Thus, the path of this search is unpredictable. of developing pharmaceutical molecules that compete with these
viruses at the docking sites and thus prevent viral penetration into
Physics has played a key role in the advancement of medical the cell.
science. Medical science has been revolutionized by the
discoveries in Physics in the past. A series of advances in Physics Most drugs work by binding to unique sites on specific protein and
has a decisive and direct impact on medical science Today nearly modifying how the protein does its job. The search for molecules
all the diagnostic and therapeutic tools of modern hospitals have that can bind selectively to proteins and alter their function is
their origin in Physics research. very difficult and insufficient if done by trial and error. It is the

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The Himalayan Physics Physics in Medical Science
Vol. II May 2011

application of Physics techniques such as x-rays crystallography German professor of physics, in his lab on Nov 8, 1895 which
that allows determining the structure of viruses and identifying sites has been found to be remarkable medical achievement. For this
on a virus with a therapeutic molecule. Design and development descovery Roentgen won the first Nobel in Physics in the year
of such drugs are done by the physicists and is now a major aspect 1901. This enables us to look inside a living body noninvasively.
of research. The passage of X-rays through biological tissues can be recorded
with photographic films and other detectors. The analysis of X-ray
Knowing the structure of proteins is essential for understanding images of the body is an extremely valuable medical diagnostic
their functions. Cells contain tiny molecular motors which are the tool. In penetrating the tissues, the radiation is absorbed differently
family of proteins that help the cell to move or the material within depending on the densities of the tissues being penetrated. The
the cell from one place to another. The most familiar example of radiation emerging from tissue thus produces on a photographic
these motors is muscle contraction and the pumping of the heart. film or a fluorescent screen, an image of the structure of differing
Molecular motors are essential for the job performed by the cells. densities of the tissue.

The beating of the heart and function of the brain require another A new form of X-ray imaging computerized axial tomography
kind of protein that produces electrical signal in cell. The Electro (CAT scanning) during the 1970s in the USA and Britain measures
Cardiogram (ECG) and Electro Encephalogram (EEG) are the attenuation of X-rays entering the body from many different
manifestations of the operations of proteins and are used for the angles. Cormak received the 1979 Nobel Prize for developing
diagnosis of heart and neurological diseases. Biophysicists have computrised tomography, the standard method for extrating three
also learned how these proteins generate their electrical signals dimentional information from two dimentional projection. From
and this knowledge has given us many therapies ranging from drug these measurement a computer reconstructs the organ under study
to treat abnormal heart beats to the treatment of epilepsy. in a series of cross section or planes. This technique allows soft
tissues such as liver and kidney to be clearly differentiated in
2. Diagnosis the images reconstructed by the computer. This procedure adds
Physics plays an ever more important role in diagnosis. The use of enormously to the diagnostic information that can be provided by
ionizing radiation has been important therapeutically for more than conventional X-rays. CAT scanners are now used in many hospitals
half a century. Labeling red blood cells with radioactive isotopes and medical centers throughout the world as standard method for
of chromium permits the lifetime of these cells to be measured extracting three dimensional information from two dimensional
and this method can be used to determine if anemia is the result of projection.
decreased production or increased destruction of red blood cells.
The radioactive assay makes use of antibodies that have been A still more recently developed technique is magnetic resonance
made radioactive: these antibodies detect minute quantities of imaging (MRI) in which radio waves are beamed into an individual
hormones and other chemicals by binding to them and providing which is subjected to a powerful magnetic field. Different atoms
a radioactive tag that can be used to detect the presence of the in the body absorb radio waves at different frequencies under
molecule. Because signaling molecules, like hormones, are present influence of magnetic field. The way in which absorption takes
at minute concentrations in the blood, Yalow received the Nobel place is measured and used by a computer to contrast image of
Prize in 1977 for the development of technique, the radio immune internal structures. MRI, a creation of physicist allows the doctors
assay. Other bodily fluids, some organs specifically take up certain to peer into the human body as clearly as they can view the surface.
atoms or chemical compounds and this fact has enabled physicians MRI is none perturbing, non invasive and free of any known side
to assess organs' function as to identify the pressure of damage by effect. Its role in medical diagnosis is expected to be revolutionary.
monitoring the uptake of these substances that have been tagged MRI, the result of atomic nuclear and high energy physics is last
with radioactivity. centuries’ the greatest advance in diagnosis. Isidor Isaac Rabi recieved
the 1944 Nobel Prize in Physics for the discovery of magnatic
X-rays of electromagnetic radiations with extremely short resonance in nuclei.
wave lengths were discovered by Wilhelm Conrad Roentgen, a

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 The Himalayan Physics
Parashu Ram Poudel May 2011 Vol. II
organs. The radiation emitted is detected by scintillation counter,
which is moved back and forth over the organ being scanned.
These messages can then be electronically recorded and studied
by clinicians. The isotope usually has a short half life and thus
decays completely before its radioactivity can cause any damage
to the patient’s body.

Different isotopes tend to concentrate in particular organs. For

example, iodine-131 settles in the thyroid glands and can reveal a
variety of defects in thyroid functioning. Another isotope carbon
Fig.1: MRI Instrument
-14 is useful in studing abnormalities of metabolism that underlie
diabetes, gout and anemia.
To understand the functioning of human brain, high resolution
scanning techniques such as Functional Magnetic Resonance
3. Therapy
Imaging (FMRI) and Positron Emission Tomography (PET) are
Radiotherapy, the use of radiation sources in the treatment or relief
being applied. PET scanning involves the emission of particles
of diseases, is the most important use of nuclear physics in medicine
of antimatter by compound ejected into the body being scanned.
(H. Bacquerel, M. Curie and P. Curie received the Nobel Prize
These particles, positrons, are neutralized by their opposites,
in Physics in 1903 for the discovery of radioactivity). Radiation
electrons, and energy is released in the form of radiator as matter
therapy almost always makes use of ionizing radiation, deep tissue
and antimatter annihilate each other. Detectors arranged around
penetrating rays, which can physically and chemically react with
the body pick up the energy released and use it to follow the
diseased cells to destroy them. Radiation therapy is used for cancer
movements of the injected compound and its metabolism. These
and for blood disorder such as leukemia. To destroy cancerous cells
relatively new radiological techniques provide much safer means
with minimal damage to normal healthy tissue, the radiation may
of examining internal body structures. They also yield precise
be administered to the body by implanting radioactive substances
and cleaner images for the physicians and diminish the margin of
into the tumors or by exposing the body to external sources of high
error in therapeutic measures. These techniques are sensitive to
energy rays that penetrate internally. Ionizing radiation bombards
local brain metabolism or even to local concentration of complex
the cells exposed to it and break the molecular bonds essential to
psychoactive biochemical molecules that are thought to regulate
cell growth which eradicates the cancer growth that reproduces
brain function and for some forms of drug addiction. The invention
rapidly. The radiation sources are gamma emitters which can be
of powerful computer in ultrasound has also revolutionized the
radium, radon or radioactive isotopes of such metals as cesium,
imaging. Advances in imaging also extends to light microscopy.
cobalt, gold, iridium and tantalum. This type of therapy remains
Invention of Phase Contrast Microscopy (for which Frits Zernike
one of the three options for treating cancer. Either alone or in
received Nobel Prize in 1953) improves the traditional light
combination with surgery and chemotherapy, ionizing radiation is
microscopy.
used as therapy for most malignancies.

Radioisotopes, the isotopes that radiate radioactive radiation,

The invention of LASER by T Maiman in 1960 added another
are also used in diagnosis. The use of radio isotopes in medicine
brick to medicine. Since one year of its invention in 1961, LASER
began after the discovery of artificial radioisotopes by E. Fermi
has been used to destroy a retinal tumor. Ophthalmology is the
in 1935. Fermy received Nobel Prize in 1938 for this discovery.
most benefited field where LASER is used for diagnosis as well as
In isotope scanning a radioisotope is introduced into the body,
surgical cures. It enables doctors to preciously vaporize a tissue or
usually by means of intravenous injection. The isotope is then
shape it as they wish. A classical example is LASER surgery where
taken up in different amounts by different organs. Its distribution
LASER is used to reshape the cornea. LASER is used to crush the
can be determined by recording the radiation it emits and through
kidney stone in bloodless way. It is also used to treat skin tumors
changing its concentration, it is often possible to recognize the
as well as inaccessible brain tumors. Therapeutic use of laser is
presence, size and shape of the various abnormalities in body

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The Himalayan Physics Physics in Medical Science
Vol. II May 2011

the diagnosis of brain diseases, application of the discoveries of

physics have dominant role and hence, it revolutionizes the medical
practices. Physics is addressing increasingly complex problems of
medical science. In addition to basic research, it also contributes
directly to the quality of medical care by providing new analytical
tools, diagnostic techniques, and therapies. X-ray tomography has had
a major impact on x-ray diagnostics; magnetic resonance imaging is
widely regarded as a revolutionary advance in medical diagnostics.
rapidly increasing.
Ultrasonic imaging is yet another of the noninvasive diagnostic
tools from Physics. Lasers are finding increasingly widespread
Fig. 2: Radiation therapy of the pelvis. Lasers and a mould under
applications in medicine. Laser surgery replaces some highly delicate
the legs are used to determine exact position
or traumatic operations with simple and straightforward procedures.
Fiber-optic endoscopes exemplify many new diagnostic instruments.
Ultrasound or ultrasonic is one of the non invasive diagnostic tools
Combined with lasers, the endoscopes can be used to provide new
from physics that has found an important place as a nonsurgical
therapies that may replace elaborate surgical procedures. Nuclear
treatment of kidney stones and for cleaning of surgical instruments.
medicine and radiation therapy have much contribution to medicinal
It has been used to relieve pain due to arthritis and neurological
diagnosis and therapy. Inventions of such many new instruments and
pain, to restore contracted finger, to conduct bloodless surgery, to
technologies from Physics are today enhancing the quality of health
extract broken teeth and to loosen scar tissue. Ultrasonic waves are
care of human beings. Physics has great impact on the advancement
also used in sterilization of milk and water.
of medical science. The investment on Physics is also the investment
The invention of optical fiber by physicists is another revolution on human health.
in therapy. In medical science optical fiber endoscope exemplifies
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