Dirac, Faraday, Born and medical imaging

Most modern medical imaging methods rely on the analysis and processing of acquired data to reconstruct a desired tomographic image, generally via digital methods. A unified view of these techniques is developed here, using classical approaches associated with Dirac, Faraday and Born. A formalism due to Dirac is shown to provide a unifying basis for standard reconstruction- from-projection algorithms, as well as to point the way towards new methods. An unusual approach towards enhancing backprojected images is based on Faraday's work, while an approximation first proposed by Born is shown to link imaging methods utilising scattered radiation, to those based on a linear ray hypothesis.