Contrast medium experiment with a blood vessel model

Principle

When a blood vessel model is irradiated with X-rays, the blood vessels themselves are not visible at first. It is only after the injection of a contrast medium that the blood vessels become visible.

Benefits

• Effective demonstration of how a contrast medium can be visualized with X-rays
• Excellent entry-level experiment for medical students

Tasks

1. Inject a 50% potassium iodide solution into the blood vessel model.
2. Observe the fluorescent screen of the X-ray basic unit to follow the course taken by the injected solution in the blood vessel model.

Learning objectives

• X-ray radiation
• Bremsstrahlung
• Characteristic radiation
• Law of absorption
• Mass absorption coefficient
• Contrast medium