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Proctor is among the medical facilities in Peoria, Ill., to have installed the latest in computed tomography scanners, called LightSpeed VCT. This CT scanner from GE Medical Systems provides doctors with high resolution images in a fraction of the time previously required, allowing them to more accurately diagnose a wider variety of patient conditions.
Meismer's diagnostic test would have taken 30 to 45 minutes with earlier models of CT scanners. His test took only 10 minutes.
Originally developed in the 1970s, CT, or CAT, scans combine the power of X-ray technology and computers, allowing physicians to view thin cross sections of the internal anatomy without the need for exploratory surgery, according to information from the hospital.
"With this new technology we are able to do things more efficiently and much faster," said Dr. George Gentry, chairman of the radiology department at Proctor. "It provides us with vastly improved image quality and greater accuracy. The bottom line is we are finding much smaller tumors in earlier stages with this new equipment."
The LightSpeed VCT is able to capture any organ in one second, scan the entire body in less than 10 seconds and capture images of the heart and coronaries in fewer than five heartbeats.
In a single rotation of the machine, the system creates 64 thin images, totaling 40 millimeters of anatomical coverage. These images are combined to form a 3-D view of the patient's anatomy for the physician to analyze.
The new scanner can be used for cardiac and coronary vessel analysis, angiography studies, stroke assessment, oncology care, pulmonary examinations, inner ear ailments, spinal injuries, abdominal injuries, pediatric assessments, and kidney, liver and lung exams.
It is not designed as a substitute for a colonoscopy or mammography.
"It does an excellent job of diagnosing a clot in the lung," Gentry said. "It also does a very effective job in detecting kidney stones."
At Proctor, the new CT scanner is used for everything from broken bones to heart disease. It's an ideal tool for emergency trauma, where precise images of the brain, abdomen and pelvis can be made quickly.
Patients who go to the emergency room with sharp chest pains can be scanned quickly and in a noninvasive way for evidence of a heart attack, pulmonary embolism or aortic dissection, the three most life-threatening causes of chest pain, all in a single scan.
"We typically do 30 to 40 scans a day," Gentry said.
In some cases, the machine can eliminate the need for an invasive angiogram, an X-ray of the arteries in which a catheter is threaded through a blood vessel to the heart and dye is injected to indicate blockages.
With a computer, Gentry showed a recent scan where the patient suffered a blockage in an artery of the leg.
"Before we had this machine, this patient would have had to go to a vascular lab for diagnosis, which would have required a conventional angiogram," Gentry said. "An angiogram is an invasive procedure which requires sticking an artery. There is always the risk of bleeding.
"This noninvasive scan gives the surgeon a clear picture of the problem and enough information for his surgical planning."
The new CT technology comes with a $1.5 million price tag. But it is money well spent, Gentry said.
"I'm not for chasing technology," the doctor said. "But this is such an advancement on the older CT technology that we felt it was needed."
With the old CT technology an abdomen scan would have 100 images that doctors would analyze individually on a light box and try to visualize in their minds in 3-D. The new CT scanner collects such a volume of data, there may be 1,000 images of an abdomen scan that are seen on a computer screen in 3-D and in great detail.
In seconds, Gentry can remove skin, fat and even bone from the images to better see the organ of interest. This took an hour or more with earlier versions of CT scanners.
For Peoria cardiologist Dr. Khaled Dajani, who specializes in cardiovascular CT and cardiovascular MRI, the new CT scanner is an invaluable diagnostic tool.
"Before this we did not have a noninvasive way to directly evaluate coronary arteries," said Dajani, who works at HeartCare Midwest. "I like that it is noninvasive and very fast for patients."
He added the new CT scanner technology also is a good tool for follow-up studies on patients who have been treated for coronary artery disease.
"I principally use it as a screening tool for patients who have been experiencing chest discomfort but who are unlikely to have coronary heart disease," Dajani said. "It's a good chest pain triage tool. Using the CT scanner, I have found unexpected things, like lung tumors, hiatal hernias and reflux disease in persons with chest pain."
With the machine, Dajani has found enlarged hearts, fluid around the heart and heart valve problems, among multiple other problems. For patients with a high risk of coronary artery disease, the cardiologist still prefers using the invasive angiogram for its better image resolution.
Some physicians, however, are using the new CT technology as an alternative to an angiogram in the diagnosis of coronary artery disease.
"This new CT scan is approaching the quality of a conventional diagnostic angiogram," Gentry said.
"The differences in resolution between a conventional angiogram and this new CT technology is minute. And the CT scan has the advantage in that you see the problem area in 3-D. You can rotate it and see the abnormalities in multiple planes."
© Copley News Service
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