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CT produces a volume data which can be manipulated, through a process known as "windowing", in order to demonstrate various bodily structures based on their ability to block the X-ray beam. Although historically the images generated were in the axial or transverse plane, orthogonal to the long axis the body, modern scanners allow this volume data to be reformatted in various planes or even as volumetric (3D) representations structures. Although most common in medicine, CT is also used in other fields, such as nondestructive materials testing. Another example is archaeological uses such as imaging the contents sarcophagi or the DigiMorph project at the University Texas at Austin which uses a CT scanner to study biological and paleontological specimens.
Usage CT has increased dramatically over the last two decades. An estimated 72 million scans were performed in the United States in 2007.
The word "tomography" is derived from the Greek tomos (slice) and graphein (to write). Computed tomography was originally known as the "EMI scan" as it was developed at a research branch EMI, a company best known today for its music and recording business. It was later known as computed axial tomography (CAT or CT scan) and body section röntgenography.