Advanced Mobile PET/CT service now available

Memorial Community Hospital has teamed up with Health Enterprises of Cedar Rapids, Iowa, to begin offering mobile PET/CT Scan services. According to MCH Radiology Lead Angie Hodson, the mobile unit will be in Blair on a regularly-scheduled basis, starting in March.

Hodson said PET/CT is a diagnostic imaging system that combines PET (Positron Emission Tomography) and CT (computed tomography) in one unit. “PET uses a low-level radiopharmaceutical, such as radioactive glucose, to visualize processes or functions within the body,” Hodson explained. “CT uses x-rays to make cross-sectional images, called slices, of the body.

“Advanced software combines the anatomical information obtained from CT with the functional PET information to form not a photograph, but a biograph – an image that records live tissues and life processes with great precision and detail.”

According to Suzanne Hruza, MD, radiologist at MCH, PET and CT are both recognized as valuable diagnostic tools in their own right, but in the case of PET/CT, the sum of these two technologies is greater than the individual parts.    

“This is a whole different approach to radiological diagnosis,” Dr. Hruza said. “CT creates images with excellent anatomic detail. However, CT does not show the metabolic processes taking place in the body. PET/CT combines anatomic detail with metabolic information.

“PET/CT allows more accurate and complete information about where a tumor is, and what its’ activity is,” Dr. Hruza explained. “The benefits to the patient are multiple- earlier diagnosis, accurate staging and localization, precise treatment planning and precise patient monitoring.”

Dr. Hruza said PET/CT can be used for a number of diagnostic reasons. The most common is the imaging of neoplasms or cancer in the body. She said cancer studies account for more than 90 percent of PET/CTs current usage. “It is also utilized in cardiac imaging and to help diagnose neurologic disorders, such as Alzheimer’s disease.”

Dr. Hruza, who also practices at Immanuel Medical Center in Omaha, said the same mobile PET/CT service at Immanuel comes to MCH. “The service coming to Blair is tremendous for patient convenience,” Dr. Hruza said. “Being able to evaluate how patients are doing over time is critical to successfully managing many disease processes.”

According to MCH President and CEO Sally Harvey, the hospital is able to offer this cutting-edge diagnostic service because of the quality and cost-effectiveness that mobile healthcare services provide.

 “We’ve teamed up with Health Enterprises, a company with an excellent reputation that shares our philosophy of providing services of unsurpassed value in support of community-based healthcare,” Harvey said.

“Our radiology department has expanded with several technological advances this past year, including the addition of a new ultrasound machine, a new X-ray diagnostic room and now PET/CT services.”