A Snapshot of Nuclear Imaging

Few people ever get this access unless they’re undergoing advanced testing. Lee Memorial Health System’s SPECT CT scanner is a state-of-the-art imager. It allows doctors to see you in a whole new way.

“Nuclear medicine is used to assess how your body functions or how the organs inside your body work, whereas CT imaging is designed to show us your anatomy. This device puts the two of them together,” says Lee Memorial Health System radiologist Dr. John Rodriguez.

We went to Cape Coral Hospital for an up-close look. The hybrid device adds a nuclear camera to a CT scanner.

“If you forget this round part in the back here, this is a standard nuclear camera. It has two heads, meaning two different detectors. Inside here is a plate of detectors that senses the radioactive material that’s being emitted by the body. And then behind it is a cat scan. So if you take this part away, most people would recognize this as a typical shape of a cat scanner,” says Dr. Rodriguez.

Unlike a traditional CT scanner which sends radiation though you, the nuclear camera operates off radio-pharmaceuticals which the patient takes prior to testing. It responds to specific areas of their body. And cuts radiation exposure in half.

“The radiation comes out of the patient and hits a crystal that’s inside the camera and that crystal sends an electric signal that then through the magic of technology and innervations gets turned into an image,” says Dr. Rodriguez.

The SPECT CT camera delivers an extremely accurate picture of what’s going on inside you. Among other uses, it’s well suited to analyze heart function.

“One of the features that this has is an automated rotation sequence that basically keeps the camera with the heart, if we’re doing heart imaging, in the center of the image as it rotates around,” says Dr. Rodriguez.

Scans are performed in minutes. The data gives doctors details they need to accurately diagnose complex conditions.

Lee Memorial Health System in Fort Myers, FL is the largest network of medical care facilities in Southwest Florida and is highly respected for its expertise, innovation and quality of care. For nearly a century, we’ve been providing our community with everything from primary care treatment to highly specialized care services and robotic assisted surgeries.

[ukar]

Had one today to see if my heart is able to cope with having a kidney transplant. Takes about 20 mins and those plates gradually rotate around you and change position every 30 seconds or so.

You’re injected with a radioactive substance an hour before and you have to have a fatty meal that apparently helps with the imaging. While you’re waiting you have to keep separate from non-patients as you’re radioactive!

[Toadhouse]

I have the have one done of my atlantoaxial joint in my head, because apparently, it has degenerated quite a bit since I had back surgery over a year ago. Not sure what life is going to be like going forward. Sounds rather terrifying because it’s a pretty rare condition, apparently.

[HhappyBirthday]

I had one of these yesterday ! Didn't feel a thing.

[gemini-mgsc]

I had one done for my nuclear stress test.