Technology Upgrades Continue at Brookdale

The new General Electric Infinia Nuclear Medicine Camera has arrived at the Division of Nuclear Medicine of the Department of Radiology at Brookdale.   Similar in to a CT Scanner, this new machine facilitates studies that were previously unavailable, enhances the performance of all the previously performed studies at Brookdale, and facilitates scans performed on critically ill patients who could not previously undergo a transfer to the Radiology Department because they could not be moved from their bed.

Some of the specialized and detailed uses of the Infinia are: to scan the heart for function much faster than the older nuclear scan, to scan the lung for blood clots and oxygen flow, to scan  the brain and the skeletal system for infections, and the gall bladder, kidneys and liver for function.  Tumor scanning can also be performed to stage or follow up a malignancy .  A patient can be brought to the Radiology Department in their ICU bed and scanned directly from the bed with no need to transfer to a stretcher or scanning table, as was required in the past.  For patients who are mobile, the new camera system can accommodate a higher weight capacity and can hold up to 450 pounds on its available, built in table.            

The patient is routinely injected with a diagnostic dose of tagged radiation that is specific to the organ to be scanned.  The Gamma Camera, as it is referred to, detects the tagged dosage and displays anatomic images in detail of the targeted organ on the detectors, sometimes organ function, and sometimes variance to the anatomic appearance.  Calculations and graphs are generated, along with images from a high resolution powerful workstation. The study is then interpreted by specially trained and certified Nuclear Physicians, and a diagnosis is made.