A CT scan or computed tomography scan (formerly known as a computed axial tomography or CAT scan) is a medical imaging technique that uses computer-processed combinations of multiple X-ray measurements taken from different angles to produce tomographic (cross-sectional) images (virtual "slices") of a body, allowing the user to see inside the body without cutting. The personnel that perform CT scans are called radiographers or radiologic technologists.The 1979 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine was awarded jointly to South African American physicist Allan M. Cormack and British electrical engineer Godfrey N. Hounsfield "for the development of computer assisted tomography."Initially, the images generated in CT scans were in the transverse (axial) anatomical plane, perpendicular to the long axis of the body. [Source: Wikipedia ]