Frequently Asked Questions about Mobile Imaging and Scanning

Images from the scanner can be compared to radar images shown during a television weather report. A PET scanner shows concentrations of cancer cells in a color spectrum just as weather radar shows varying concentrations of precipitation. The anatomical image generated by the simultaneous CT scans acts as the "map" showing doctors precisely where the cancer is located. The scanner, like the combination of a weather radar and a map, combines information from two systems, CT and PET, to pinpoint activity and location fused into one image.

Unlike anatomical imaging, such as CT or MR, positron emission tomography shows chemical and physiological changes related to metabolism in the body. This is important in disease detection because disease manifests itself first metabolically, sometimes months before it can be detected anatomically.

Before a PET exam, naturally occurring compounds within the body are tagged with minute amounts of radioactivity. The most common “tracer” is a simple sugar molecule called FDG, which is injected into the patient.

PET imaging systems then detect the energy signals these tracers emit as the compound is metabolized within the body. Cancerous cells multiply rapidly and typically consumer more sugar than normal cells.

This high degree of metabolic activity will show up as “hot spots” on a PET exam. Those hot spots are cellular areas that the PET system detects more strongly, meaning they have a greater chance of being cancerous

Computed tomography (CT) is a medical diagnostic tool that allows doctors to see internal structures within the human body. Specifically, CT examinations aid physicians in diagnosing disease, viewing internal abnormalities and assessing the extent of trauma damage.

During a typical CT procedure, the patient lies on a table. The tabletop then moves the patient through a gantry, which houses an X-ray tube and detector array. The X-ray tube rotates around the patient and the X-ray passes through the patient to the detector array and thousands of measurements are acquired. The computer then processes this information and displays the corresponding images on a computer screen.

The CT exam created images analogous to a single slice of bread from a whole loaf. Hence the word “slice” is often used to describe a view of patient anatomy.

Yes, for select clinical indications with physician referrals. In the months and years to come, the medical community hopes that there will be even broader reimbursement and use of this technology, so that more lives can be saved.

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GE identified this as a breakthrough technology for doctors and their patients in the mid-1990s. Design for Six Sigma (DFSS) quality methods were employed to further develop the technology and prepare the product for launch today.

For the first time, doctors will be able to simultaneously combine images with precision. Instead of taking separate CT and PET exams (where the patient’s anatomy could change alignment in the hours, weeks or months between exams) doctors will be able to perform one exam on a PET/CT scanner, enabling them to more quickly and accurately view the locations of lesions. This technology will also help physicians determine whether lesions are benign or malignant, helping oncologists better plan a patient’s course of treatment.

Some experts are expecting this technology to soon be found in most hospitals and clinics across the country.

Absolutely yes. Fused system imaging has the potential for enhanced clinical confidence. It could help improve patient outcomes, shorten hospital stays and provide overall better patient care. Looking to the future, these imaging solutions will help pave a new direction in patient care as they become the "eyes" to help new drugs and other innovative treatments precisely target disease.

GE Medical Systems developed this sophisticated technology in response to the need expressed by the scientific and medical community to improve the accuracy of cancer diagnosis, lesion detection, and treatment planning. This scanning technology will potentially help radiation oncologists determine whether surgery, radiation therapy or chemotherapy is the best treatment method to destroy any cancerous lesions. Once therapy has begun, it will help physicians determine more rapidly if the course of treatment is working.

This technology could change the way doctors see and treat cancer. Specifically, this breakthrough technology could potentially be the most significant advancement in cancer detection and diagnosis in the last 20 years.

PET/ CT is a breakthrough technology that helps physicians effectively see and treat cancer faster than ever before. PET/CT combines computed tomography (CT) scanner and positron emission tomography (PET) system, resulting in a reading of a patient’s anatomic and metabolic information at one time.

PET/CT can help answer these critical questions for cancer patients and their doctors in one exam:

• Does a patient have cancer? Is a lesion benign or malignant?
• What is it? Is it spreading?
• How large is the cancer?
• What is optimal therapy?
• Is the therapy working?
• Is there a reoccurrence of cancer? And if so, where and to what extent?