Imaging Services
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Each exam room at Southwestern Regional Medical Center features a window to a serene world: a Luminous SkyCeiling™
that captures breathtaking, seasonal scenes. As you undergo your tests, you’ll look up to cherry blossoms and blue skies, cotton candy clouds or trees full of crisp, colorful leaves. You’ll also hear soothing sounds that will help you relax. According to our patients, this tranquil "experience" helps calm them and reduce their stress levels.
You have better things to do than to sit and wait for tests and results.
At CTCA at Southwestern Regional Medical Center (Southwestern), we recognize this and do everything in our power to get you through your tests and to your results as soon as possible.
On average, you’ll only stay in our waiting room for 10 minutes before having a diagnostic test performed. And, you typically receive test results in as little as eight hours.
In addition, we perform diagnostic scans in record time to collect extremely detailed sets of data, which optimize our chances of detecting small tumors. Our equipment produces digital images, which we evaluate at post-processing work stations for abnormal anatomy and physiology. Each month, we perform approximately 1,600 imaging tests.
Our experienced staff includes board-certified radiologists and board-certified, fellowship-trained interventional radiologists. A number of our physicians also have had additional training in subspecialties, such as molecular imaging and MRI. More so, all of our radiologic technologists have taken supplementary subspecialty examinations. They are either in-house or on-call seven days a week, 24 hours a day.
Imaging Tools and Technology
At Southwestern, we use the most advanced medical imaging equipment available to locate and eradicate cancer. The following are just some of the innovative imaging tools available at our cancer hospital:
GE Discovery PET/CT 600 Scanner
Watch a video to see how the GE Discovery PET/CT 600 Scanner works.
In April 2009, Southwestern became the third hospital in the world and the first hospital in the nation to offer the new Discovery PET/CT 600 scanner , manufactured by GE Healthcare. This technology allows our physicians to diagnose and stage tumors with improved accuracy so we can develop a more precise treatment plan.
The Discovery PET/CT 600 scanner merges two imaging technologies, positron emission tomography (PET) and computed tomography (CT), into one machine for a single imaging session. A PET scan reveals the function of cells and tissues in the body. A CT scan provides detailed information about the anatomy or structure of organs and tissues in the body. By blending these two images into one singular image, our physicians can identify abnormal activity and know precisely where this activity is taking place to make appropriate treatment decisions.
The Discovery PET/CT 600 scanner also offers motion management capabilities. Motion from respiration, the beating heart, and patient movement impact image quality and quantitative accuracy. The motion-free platform of this machine allows our physicians to accurately identify multiple small lesions near those areas affected by movement.
Specific advantages of the Discovery PET/CT 600 scanner include the following:
- Has the highest sensitivity in the industry, allowing our physicians to accurately identify tumor boundaries
- Captures images with detail and precision, allowing for more targeted treatment and more concentrated radiation
- Can detect lesions down to 2.0 mm, which enables our physicians to find cancer and metastases earlier
- Leads the way in image motion management, adding clarity to areas subject to motion, such as the heart and lungs
- Allows our physicians to review images while the scan is being completed
- Reduces treatment planning from 48 hours to 24 hours
Multidetector CT Scanner
Our multidetector CT scanner allows us to see objects with micro-level detail. According to Siemens AG, the manufacturer of this equipment, the scanner collects up to 40 slices per rotation, resulting in an extraordinary resolution of .04 millimeters. Ultimately, this means we can acquire data with incredible speed, all the while producing images that are of superb quality, detail and clarity.
And something our patients appreciate is the fact that the increased width of the scanning space of this tool makes for a more comfortable, less claustrophobic experience as they undergo CT scans.
Siemens Multi-Modality Workstation
We also use a Siemens multi-modality workstation that includes body perfusion software. This enables our interventional radiologists to see—in real time—which portions of a tumor are most active. Physicians can then direct a targeted therapy at the more active portion of the tumor and study the effects of the therapy on the tumor in real time. In addition, we perform lung analysis using a state-of-the-art Vitrea® workstation by Vital Images.
GE 16-Slice CT Scanner
In September 2008, Southwestern completed installation of a new 16-slice computed tomography (CT) scanner, manufactured by GE Medical Systems. Our radiologists use this technology to obtain detailed diagnostic images, in reduced time, to plan radiation treatment.
This state-of-the-art four-dimensional CT scanner enables our radiologists to plan treatment in accordance with patients' breathing patterns. In addition, the GE 16-slice CT scanner is three to four times faster than conventional machines. Thus, patients are able to get in and out of their appointments faster.
Ultimately, this technology has the potential to improve both radiation treatment planning and patients' overall experience.
Interventional Radiology
In Imaging Services, we also perform interventional radiology procedures. Interventional radiology is a subspecialty of radiology, in which minimally invasive procedures are performed using imaging guidance.
Radiography or ultrasonography are used to direct these procedures, which are usually performed with needles or other tiny instruments, such as catheters. The images provide road maps that allow the interventional radiologist to guide these instruments through a patient’s body to the areas of interest.
Many interventional radiology procedures for cancer treatment are performed on an outpatient basis or during a short hospital stay. In many cases, the procedures are less painful and debilitating for patients than exploratory surgical procedures. In addition, patients can typically recover more quickly and tend to have fewer side effects and complications.
The following are just some of the interventional procedures we perform at Southwestern:
Chemoembolization
Chemoembolization is an innovative therapy we use to treat certain types of liver cancer, or cancer that has spread to the liver from another organ.
In this procedure, a small catheter is inserted through a needle (with X-ray guidance) into the patient’s femoral artery, located in the groin. The interventional radiologist then threads the catheter through the aorta (the largest artery, located in the heart) and into the artery in the liver, which is the one that feeds the tumor. The interventional radiologist then injects chemotherapy into that artery. This concentrated dose hits the tumor directly.
Radiofrequency Ablation
Radiofrequency ablation (RFA) is a treatment in which we direct radiofrequency waves (heat) at the tumor to destroy the cancerous cells. Since cancer cells are vulnerable to heat, RFA can destroy them by raising their temperature through the radiofrequency waves.
In this procedure, the interventional radiologist inserts a special needle electrode into the tumor using CT or ultrasound guidance. A radiofrequency current then is passed through the electrode to the tumor tissue near the needle tip to ablate—or eliminate—it. The heat from the radiofrequency energy also closes up small blood vessels, thereby minimizing the risk of bleeding.
Our body perfusion post-processing software allows us to monitor blood flow to the tumors before, during and after RFA procedures. It helps us to determine if we have terminated blood flow to the tumor.
RFA is a minimally invasive way to eliminate tumors in organs such as the liver, lungs or kidneys. It is also used to treat metastatic bone cancer.
TheraSphere®
TheraSphere® is a treatment of localized, internal radiation that destroys tumor cells with minimal injury to surrounding, healthy liver tissue. It consists of millions of tiny glass beads (20-30 micrometers in diameter). Each bead has radioactive Yttrium-90 in it. These TheraSpheres are injected into the main artery of the liver by the radiation oncologist, through a catheter or small tube placed in by the interventional radiologist. The tiny radioactive glass beads are delivered directly to the liver tumor via its blood vessels.
TheraSphere® offers patients an alternative to chemotherapy, external beam radiation and other common liver cancer treatments.
CT-Guided Biopsy
CT-guided biopsy involves removing a small piece of tissue for a physician to examine.
CT Fluoroscopy
CT fluoroscopy may be conducted via our new multidetector CT scanner. Interventional radiologists can complete CT fluoroscopy using live CT images to help position the probe/needle in and around critical anatomical structures, such as the heart, lungs and spine to obtain the best tumor specimen. It also allows physicians to drain thoracic, abdominal, pelvic and retroperitoneal lesions.
The live images reduce the length of a biopsy procedure, saving time for both the patient and the physician.
CT fluoroscopy also removes the effect of the patient’s breathing and motion on image quality. It helps allow for accurate depth and direction of the needle during procedures.
