PET and CAT Scan Machine
By: Priscilla Mace
Updated: September 15, 2011
JOPLIN, MO---The CAT scanner is what everyone is probably familiar with.
"The PET scanner is a nuclear medicine study where we can actually tag different agents with a tiny amount of radioactivity, reinject them into the body, and radioactivity goes to. Whatever this tagged agent is what we normally use with the pet scanner is sugar," says Dr. Paul Jones.
Dr. Paul Jones says that's because the most aggressive cancers use sugar as energy.
"It's the best way i'm aware of in the 30 years i've been a radiologist to find cancer, look for the extent of cancer and to monitor treatment," Jones says.
Freeman Health Systems has new combo equipment, permanently on site five days a week.
It provides both pet and cat scans.
"The one thing about the pet scan combined with cat scan is that the cat scan images allow us to be very precise in knowing exactly where that hotspot was on the pet scan," Jones says.
