64-Sliced CT Scanner takes images in seconds
By Jessica Thy Nguyen
Special to the Dispatch
Gilroy – A blood clot the size of a grain of sand can now be detected at Saint Louise Regional Hospital without performing surgery.
This new medical machine where patients are slid through a giant donut-like cylinder for x-rays, has made the imaging process so harmless and quick that it won’t even scare the claustrophobic members of the community.
“Even some of the [third of fourth level] care centers in the Mecca’s of medicine don’t have the 64-Sliced CT Scanner,” said Ted Fox, president and CEO of Saint Louise Regional Hospital, of their new $1.7-million machine.
A grant from the Daughters of Charity Foundation enabled the hospital to purchase the new scanner in May to provide state-of-the-art diagnostic imaging to their patients.
Most people are familiar with the comparatively “old fashioned” CT (Computerized Tomography) scanner machines – sometimes called CAT scanners. The idea is pretty simple – lie down on a narrow couch inside a large cylinder while X-rays rotate around you and take several different pictures of your body. The images are later reassembled in a computer to give a two-dimensional image of the area scanned.
The 64-Sliced CT Scanner differs from older versions of CT scanners in that it takes 64 images per rotation instead of just one, and the images are then manipulated to create a detailed three-dimensional rendition of the area scanned, down to a 0.3 mm.
“A head scan takes 3.14 seconds, a torso in 12 seconds, so the patient has to hold their breath for some of these [and] their breath hold is much shorter,” said Mary Casillas, diagnostic imaging director of Saint Louise.
The doctors using the new scanners are now able to find minute lesions in blood vessels which older machines couldn’t detect. Even the smallest blood clots can be found with the millimeter thin image slices instead of performing an invasive angiogram – where an incision has to be made in the tissue and a catheter run through the blood vessel to find the clot.
“We’re going to be able to visualize blood flow in a way which has never been able to be done before outside of a catherization lab at Stanford or [somewhere similar],” Fox said about the process.
This is huge for the doctors in the area who are now able to send the patient to get a scan, receive the images in their offices within minutes and give a diagnosis to the radiologists over the phone, all while the patient is still at the hospital.
The faster process is ideal for images necessary from small children who can’t hold still for long periods of time. Casillas said an infant who’d been received in the emergency room needed immediate head scans while being given CPR, and in three seconds, the scans were complete. The time of the scans cuts back on the time needed for a diagnosis.
Not only are they quicker, but the new CT scanners make their lifesaving technology accessible to more people. The old machines had a weight limit of 300 pounds, but the new machines can accommodate patients weighing up to 450 pounds
The scanner further enhances the hospitals mission to serve children, the poor, and the elderly in a more efficient manner.
“[It’s] important I think, for South County people to know that this is technology that the Daughters of Charity [are] dedicated to having – the latest and greatest – and doing what’s best for our patients,” Casillas said of the addition to their facility.
