PET / CT of Las Colinas

Lymphoma is a type of cancer affecting the immune system. It is classified into Hodgkin lymphoma and non-Hodgkin lymphoma. These two types are further categorized into several subtypes. Doctors use PET scans many times in the treatment of lymphoma, starting with determining the stage at which the cancer is, monitoring treatment response and giving a prognosis. It is effective for some forms of lymphoma specifically Hodgkin lymphoma and a number of the common subtypes of non-Hodgkin lymphoma. PET scans remain an important part of a patient’s cancer journey and here is why: ·         The usual practice is to perform a scan before treatment begins so the doctors can find out the stage of the cancer. In some instances, the doctors may go straight to treatment and then conduct the scan afterwards for various reasons including scheduling issues or urgency of the treatment. ·         Once treatment begins, th...

When doctors need to examine the inner workings of the body, they are most likely going to recommend a PET scan. A positron emission tomography (PET) scan shows images of organs and tissues and how they are functioning. It is used in the detection of several diseases including heart disease, cancer and brain disorders. Doctors introduce a tracer into the system and areas with high chemical activity show up on the screen as bright spots. These bright spots are usually the areas affected by disease.  With cancer cells, they appear as bright spots due to its higher metabolic rate compared to normal cells. A PET scan will help detect cancer and show how far it has spread. In some instances, cancers may not show on the scan. Possible reasons include: • It is common for patients to receive a diagnosis for cancer of unknown primary. This means that the test has found cancer in areas where it spread to but hasn’t detected where it started from or the primary site. Cancers are c...

PET-CT scans are viewed as the gold standard for cancer imaging and can easily give a wide array of information. Doctors use this scan to determine whether there is cancer in the body and, if so, where exactly it is located. This helps in choosing the right course of treatment for the patient. This scan releases a dose of radiation into the body and the resulting images are crisp and precise. The procedure is generally safe for most patients. Some may worry about the amount of radiation being introduced into the body but the benefits that this scan offers far outweighs the risk. Patients asked to get a PET-CT scan should expect the following: • Patients should not eat or drink anything for six hours prior to the procedure. Water is, however, allowed. The test is conducted by first injecting sugars into the body and so it is advisable that the patient stay away from eating sugars at least 24 hours before the procedure. During the exam, sugar is given in an IV injection and the p...

Using a common brain scan, researchers used a machine-learning algorithm to diagnose Alzheimer’s in its early stage, about six months prior to a clinical diagnosis. This allows doctors to offer treatment. Alzheimer’s has no known cure, but some drugs have been used in the recent years to help control the progression of this condition. However, to be effective these treatments should be given in Alzheimer’s early stages. This has motivated scientists to come up with ways of diagnosing the condition early. The study: A recent study by Jae Ho Sohn, UC San Francisco’s resident in the Department of Radiology and Biomedical Imaging, combined machine-learning with neuroimaging to predict whether a patient would get Alzheimer’s disease when they faced a memory impairment for the first time. Sohn used a machine-learning algorithm with PET scans to diagnose Alzheimer’s disease in its early stage . Sohn fed the algorithm with images from the Alzheimer’s Disease Neuroimaging Initiativ...

There is a new advanced technology to scan the human body in the shortest time possible. The so-called ‘Explore’ body scanner can scan the human body in less than a minute (20-30 seconds) while still giving a more detailed analysis of the body structure. The technology combines the attributes of Position Emission Tomography (PET) and the Computed Tomography (CT). The idea of coming up with this technology dates back 13 years ago from the University of California. The advantage of using this technology in scanning the body is that it produces three- dimensional images thereby giving more features that most oncologists may not see in regular PET/CT scans. The scan technology uses 40 times less radiation compared to the PET scan . Most cancer tumors cannot be fully examined usingtraditional diagnosis methods. The new technology scanners can be used to give a detailed analysis of any cancer found in the body and other related diseases. It gives a qualitative and quantitative analysi...

Digital PET/CT using Vereos can spot the smallest lesion in a patient’s body. It is built with a digital detector to improve the sensitivity and detectability of small lesions while reducing the scan time. This hybrid imaging modality known as Vereos PET/CT from Philips Healthcare is used as a diagnostic and prognostic imaging tool by oncologists to assess the response of patients to therapy and even cancer recurrence. By digitalizing PET/CT, its medical value has increased tremendously. Here’s how the Vereos PET/CT can enhance clinical care : • Increased scan volume – The new imaging technique can enhance patient experience with excellent scan accuracy. The Vereos PET/CT has also increased the scan volume to 18 patients each day with whole-body scans taking 30 minutes. The high sensitivity of the digital detector and short scan times ensure quality images. • Improved detectability for small lesions – The Vereos PET/CT can detect the small lesions and their activity in the b...

Positron Emission Tomography and Computed Tomography (PET-CT) is a high standard of cancer imaging that combines two powerful technologies to provide advanced details about the presence of cancer in a patient and the cancer’s location in the body. The doctor orders a PET-CT scan when you display unusual symptoms after a physical exam or when they notice something unusual during an X-ray or MRI scan to look for the presence of a tumor.  Here’s how PET-CT helps in identifying cancer fast : • A combined PET-CT scan provides detailed information about a tumor compared to using a PET or CT scan alone. The PET-CT scan provides both the anatomy and metabolism of lesions in the body and improves the accuracy of diagnosis, therefore, reducing the number of scans the patient needs. • The CT part uses multiple X-ray images to provide clear, detailed images. It shows anatomic images of tumors while the PET helps in detecting the presence of positrons which are microscopic particles wi...