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Thanks to the $2 million positron emission
tomography - or PET - scanning system being leased by Charleston
Radiologists PA, cancer patients in North Charleston and as far north as
Orangeburg no longer need to travel to North Carolina for accurate analysis
of the disease's progress. Instead, they can make weekly visits to
Charleston Radiologists PET Scanning Office in North Charleston's Trident
Medical Arts Building. Charleston
Radiologists began leasing the PET scanner from Atlanta-based PET Scans of
America on June 7th, 2001. The scanner is located inside a truck-hauled
trailer that pulls into the Trident campus every Thursday. In addition to
the Trident site, the mobile scanner's route includes medical sites in
Myrtle Beach and Georgia.
"A lot of cancer patients in the North
Charleston area go to Duke University or to Charlotte to accurately stage
their disease," says Charleston Radiologists' Dr. Thomas Puckette, who
heads the firm's PET scanning services. "Now they can stay here in the
area and receive complete medical care at one location."
Unlike conventional imaging systems, the
PET scanner provides doctors information about cell metabolism and growth,
enabling faster and more accurate detections of cancer and other cell
disorders. the spread of the disease appears as dark spots on a PET image.
"PET is a very powerful tool for
determining just how bad a cancer is," says Puckette. "It's commonly used
for lung cancer, but can also be used for many other forms of cancer and
for heart and brain diseases as well."
According to Linda Lipske, Charleston
radiologist's office manager, the PET imaging system can scan up to eight
patients during its weekly visit. A team of four - two technologists, a
nurse and a radiologist - are involved in the process, which takes about
two hours per patient.
In May, CareAlliance Health Services and
the Medical University of South Carolina began performing PET scanning
services at MUSC's campus. Unlike Charleston Radiologist's PET scanner;
the CareAlliance-MUSC system is fixed rather than mobile. |
