Children's Installs Two New Scanners: CT and PET/CT
The Children’s Radiology Department has two new CT scanners — one dedicated CT scanner and one CT/PET scanner. Both are 64-slice high-resolution scanners that acquire images up to five times faster than the scanner that was previously available at Children’s.
The availability of two CT scanners increases Children’s capacity to perform scans, making it possible to respond to exam requests more quickly and to avoid sending patients to other hospitals for emergent CT exams.
Children’s is the only pediatric hospital in the country with a scanner that performs both positron emission tomography (PET) and computed tomography (CT). The scanner’s PET capability will be used primarily for oncology, cardiology and neurology patients. The PET information will be used together with CT images to enhance the accuracy of the diagnosis.
In oncology patients, the PET scan can help determine whether certain tumors are active or inactive, and if they have spread, either locally or to outlying locations away from the primary tumor.
The CT information can be used to precisely identify the location of the lesion. The combination of the two technologies enables physicians to detect disease earlier and more reliably, determine the location more precisely and monitor the effects of therapy.
Because of the speed of the CT scanner, a child that would normally have to be anesthetized will now more likely be able to hold still long enough to successfully complete the images. Young children will still require anesthesia for the longer PET/CT examinations.
In addition to offering a more child-friendly environment than adult hospitals, Children’s provides unparalleled pediatric expertise in anesthesia, nursing and radiologic diagnosis. Finally, a full-time child life specialist will be available soon to provide support to patients and their families during this process.