These remarkable pictures of a human skeleton and internal organs have been captured using a new medical scanner that produces high-resolution images while minimising the patient’s exposure to radiation.

The Brilliance iCT scanner, which was launched yesterday by the technology company Philips, can provide clear and detailed three-dimensional images of internal organs, while reducing scanning time and hence the dose of radiation that the patient receives.

The new scanner is so fast that it can capture an image of the heart in the time it takes the organ to beat just twice. It takes large numbers of X-rays and feeds them into a computer, which produces an image that can be rotated and viewed from different directions. Cross-sections through the part of the body being scanned help produce the final image.

Skeletons look uncannily real and fine structures such as networks of blood vessels can be seen easily.

Evidence presented to experts in Chicago yesterday during trials of the scanner at a conference of the Radiological Society of North America suggests that it reduces the dose of radiation received by a patient by up to 80 per cent, compared with existing scanners.

Steve Rusckowski, chief executive of Philips Medical Systems, said that the scanner was “specifically designed to make the job of the clinicians easier and improve the experience of the patient”.

He added: “We are seeking to make a difference in how radiologists can prevent, diagnose, treat and monitor disease and allow them to focus more on their patients.”

The cost of the machine has not yet been disclosed.

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