Contact: Jennifer Kurczek
Community Relations Director
(920)361-5481 or jkurczek@partnershealth.org
Raising the bar in patient care
with state-of-the-art Aquilion
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And according to those who use them, only one word
can describe the images projected by the new state-of-the-art Computed
Tomography (CT) Scanner installed at Berlin Memorial Hospital (BMH) last week.
“Awesome. The clarity of the images and the speed
in which we can obtain them are simply awesome,” said Dr. John Zwiacher, general/thoracic
surgeon at BMH, who routinely utilizes CT technology for diagnosing and
treating his patients.
The multi-slice Aquilion CT Scanner, manufactured
by Toshiba Medical Systems, acquires lifelike, three-dimensional (3-D) images much
faster than a traditional CT Scanner. Used to screen the body’s vital organs
for disease and abnormalities, the Aquilion CT Scanner creates cross-sectional
images, or “slices” of the anatomy in view.
“This new technology is the fastest in its class,
but it’s more than just speed. It has clinical advantages that have changed our
practice in many ways,” said Dr. Uri Vaisman, radiologist at BMH. “For
instance, it gives us better insight into the human body because it can depict
any hollow structure in the body with a great deal of detail and accuracy. This
enables us to see signs of disease earlier than ever before, providing an
opportunity to treat the disease more quickly.”
CT Scanning technology is used at BMH for a
complete range of applications – from stroke and cardiovascular disease
detection to trauma, orthopedics and conventional imaging studies of isolated
body areas like the head, sinuses, abdomen, pelvis and chest. With the new
technology, doctors can accurately view the size, shape, and position of soft
tissue structures such as the lungs, liver, kidneys and other organs in
determining or ruling out a suspected diagnosis.
Breakthroughs
in Disease Detection
In addition to the traditional applications, the multi-slice Aquilion
Scanner possesses the capability to conduct screenings typically done
invasively.
CT Angiography is a detailed study of the patient’s blood vessels used to detect and
diagnose cardiovascular disease. Traditionally, patients would have x-ray dye
contrast injected into their blood vessels via catheterization. Such procedures
carry significant risks of injury to the blood vessels, inappropriate clot
formation and potential hemorrhaging.
Whole Body CT Scanning captures patients’
health from the inside out – revealing conditions like artery build-up,
aneurysms, nodules, tumors and abscesses. It can also detect conditions in the
spine, such as disk degeneration and herniation and
osteoporosis.
Virtual Colonoscopy is a non-invasive alternative to the current procedure in which a
scope is inserted into the patient’s colon and used to detect polyps which may
lead to cancer. The American Cancer Society recommends that people over the age
of 50 undergo colon cancer examinations every five to 10 years, or if cancer is
prevalent in family history, starting at the age of 35. The virtual
colonoscopy, currently being evaluated clinically for patients’ long-range outcomes,
offers a promising future as the standard practice for detecting colon cancer.
Coronary Artery Calcium Scoring is a preventative screening that scans the heart and detects calcium
along the walls of the arteries, an early indicator of heart disease. The test
then produces a calcium score that identifies the patient’s level of deposits,
which his or her doctor uses to determine heart disease risk.
“Obviously, the benefits of this new technology to our patients are
awesome,” Dr. Vaisman said. “They allow them to obtain results more rapidly
from their physicians and may not have to undergo invasive diagnostic
procedures, which essentially reduces their cost, risks and recovery time.”
From a patient perspective, the upgraded technology is more
convenient, safer and comfortable. Because the scanner is extremely fast, the
overall time required lying on the scanner table and exposure to radiation is reduced.
Plus, since motion is less of a factor, patients are required to hold their
breaths just once or twice and the radiologist doesn’t have to worry so much
about motion artifacts.
The hospital’s Diagnostic Imaging department will be hosting an Open House
event later this spring to offer the public an opportunity to see the new
technology first-hand.
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