by
Glenda Fauntleroy, DOTmed News | September 12, 2011
From the September 2011 issue of HealthCare Business News magazine
In their discussion of the innovations made with CT scanners, the researchers concluded that if a morbidly obese patient can fit into a scanner, the “image quality is diagnostically acceptable with details of small structures visible even in the most obese patients.”
GE Healthcare and Philips Healthcare are two of the manufacturers offering this new generation of what’s being called “wide bore scanners.” GE introduced its first wide bore MR system, the Optima MR450w, as one that delivers “both uncompromised image quality and patient comfort,” according to the company’s website. GE says the system “increases accessibility for claustrophobic and obese patients—without sacrificing high-resolution imaging, patient comfort, or clinical productivity.”
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But have these large scanners been acquired in many hospitals across the country?
“Certainly the larger hospitals are more likely to have the latest technology than smaller facilities,” says Brink. “The more CT scanners a hospital has, the more likely it is to replace the equipment more regularly and purchase the newer, larger models.”
Although the newer models can be costly, they can accommodate patients of all sizes, according to the Harvard report.
Brink goes on to explain that another challenge facing radiography and the morbidly obese patient is that these patients are subjected to increased exposure to harmful doses of radiation during the diagnostic procedures.
“Heavy patients need more X-ray to penetrate their body, either with CT scan or fluoroscopy, and the radiation dose goes up and becomes unevenly distributed through the body,” he says.
The ACR has made it a goal to increase efforts to find ways that will allow radiologists to obtain images without exposing patients to these harmful doses. Brink says there is a lot of research now being conducted that includes, for example, hardware that uses fewer photons to capture images.
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