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Signet Diagnostic Imaging Services is proud to have the Philips Medical Systems Gemini High Performance PET/CT scanner. This system boasts a wide variety of revolutionary advancements, including being the only Open Gantry Design PET/CT in the marketplace. The system produces the fastest total body imaging time of any PET/CT currently available and the multi-slice CT, allows for highly accurate and precise anatomical mapping.
PET imaging measures the body's metabolic activity. A patient recieving a PET scan is injected with a radioactive isotope which is in the form of glucose. Glucose is metabolized by all living cells in the body. The PET scan images the metabolic activity in the body. In the case of cancer, the cells function in a hypermetabolic state and this is seen on the PET scan.
Therefore PET scanning has become the gold standard in staging and restaging cancers. In cardiovascular and neurological diseases, the PET scan shows areas of increased, diminished or absent metabolic activity, therefore pinpointing abnormalities.
The advantage of PET/CT is that it is a hybrid imaging device, combining the best of seperate technologies. PET is a nuclear medicine imaging device that allows for very sensitive imaging of metabolic and functional processes. But is weak in anatomically being able to precisely locate where the abnormality is in the body. CT scanning is very strong in anatomical location. So by combining the units in to one single imaging device, you get the benefits of both technologies. When a patient has a PET/CT scan, the PET will identify areas of altered metabolism which indicate a disease state, and the PET images are fused with the CT images which are taken at the same time, allowing for the precise anatomical location of were the abnormal areas are seen on the PET scan. This gives the physician powerfull diagnostic information,and allows the physician to plan the proper and most effective course of treatment.
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