With A Sophisticated Equipment, King Faisal Hospital Can Now Offer Better Services

King Faisal Hospital has acquired a 128- slice CT scanner, an incredible tool that scrolls through the body in less than 10 seconds.

“CT Scan reduces the time it used to take for examining a patient in a relatively short period of time,” confirmed Dr Emmanuel Rudakemwa a radiologist. He told Taarifa that; “In addition, it scans the whole body in only ten seconds. With its speed, CT will enable us to provide swift services to our clients.”

For King Faisal Hospital, medical imaging technology is an important step that ranks them at the forefront of the patient’s care. This technology will also boost the hospital’s capacity to diagnose more patients within a short time.

This Computerized Tomography Scanner that costs roughly a million dollar, has a system that provides high quality images making exam time shorter and accurate.

The CT scanner, also called a CAT scanner, has become one of the most important tools to diagnose head and spine injuries, lung, liver disease, and cancerous tumors among others.

Under the guidance of qualified staff, radiologists and cardiologists, the 128 slice CT scanner allows physicians to easily capture precise, motion-free images of the heart and coronary arteries to identify soft plaque or measure coronary blockage and detect signs of disease at its earliest stages, reducing the need for high-risk interventional procedures.

CT Scanner machines are differentiated by the number of slices they have, and the slice number correlates with how many images the CT scanning machine can garner per gantry rotation. For example, a 128 Slice CT Scan machine is capable of acquiring 128 images per.

Technically explained, the most prominent part of a CT scanner is the gantry – a circular, rotating frame with an X-ray tube mounted on one side and a detector on the opposite side. A fan-shaped beam of X-rays is created as the rotating frame spins the X-ray tube and detector around the patient.

As awareness of diagnostic imaging increases and technology advances, the diagnostic imaging market is set to grow significantly in the coming years.

How to prepare for a CT Scan

Preparation for a CT scan typically depends of which part of the body is to be scanned. Usually, the patient will be asked to:

• Take off some or all of the clothing and wear a hospital gown.
• Remove any metal objects, such as a belt or jewelry, which might interfere with image results.
• Stop eating for a few hours before the scan.
• If a patient is going to have a contrast injection, he or she should not have anything to eat or drink for a few hours before the CT scan because the injection may cause stomach upset.
• To receive the contrast injection, an IV is inserted into the arm just prior to the scan. The contrast then enters the body through the IV.
• Prior to most CT scans of the abdomen and pelvis, it is important to drink an oral contrast agent that contains dilute barium. This contrast agent helps the radiologist identify the gastrointestinal tract (stomach, small and large bowel), detect abnormalities of these organs, and to separate these structures from other structures within the abdomen.
• If the patient has a history of allergy to contrast material (such as iodine), the requesting physician and radiology staff should be notified.
• The patient will be asked to drink slightly less than a quart spread out over 1.5 to 2 hours.
• If an infant or toddler is having the CT scan, the doctor may recommend a sedative to keep the child calm and still. Movement blurs the images and may lead to inaccurate results.

Sources:

• http://www.mayoclinic.org/tests-procedures/ct-scan/basics/how-you-prepare/prc-20014610
• http://www.emedicinehealth.com/ct_scan/page3_em.htm
• http://www.medicinenet.com/cat_scan/page4.htm

Here, Medical Imaging Technology identifies the top five diagnostic imaging device manufacturers globally, based on their revenue.

1. Fujifilm Holdings is a Japan-based company, with headquarters in Tokyo. The company’s medical systems/life sciences product portfolio comprises digital X-ray imaging and diagnostic systems, digital mammography systems and X-ray films. Fujifilm reported revenues of $27.5 billion during the fiscal year ended March 2012.

2. GE Healthcare, with headquarters in Buckinghamshire, UK, is a business unit of General M Electric Company, which provides transformational medical technologies and services, as well as consulting services. The company recorded revenue of $18.1 billion during the fiscal year ended December 2011.
3. Siemens Healthcare is global medical and healthcare information Technology Company. It develops, produces and sells diagnostic and therapeutic systems, devices and consumables, and IT systems for clinical and administrative applications. Geographically, the company divides its revenue into four segments: Europe, CIS, Africa and the Middle East; Germany; the Americas; and Asia and Australia. It conducts operations in North America, Africa, Europe, Asia and Australia. It operates through three divisions: imaging and therapy systems, clinical products and diagnostics. The company recorded revenue of $17.4 billion during the fiscal year ended September 2011.

4. Philips Healthcare part of Royal Philips Electronics, is a medical device company with headquarters in Massachusetts, US. It manufactures and markets diagnostic imaging systems, healthcare IT solutions, and patient monitoring and cardiac devices. The company classifies its business activities into four areas: imaging systems, patient care and clinical informatics, home healthcare solutions and customer services. The company recorded revenue of $12.3 billion during the fiscal year ended December 2011, representing an increase of 2.9% over that in 2010.

5. Shimadzu Corporation is a developer of measuring medical, space and industrial instruments, with headquarters in Kyoto, Japan. The major products of the company include laboratory instruments, testing and inspection machines, non-destructive testing machines, balances and scales, medical diagnostics systems and equipment. The company reported revenues of $3.3 billion during the fiscal year ended March 2012, an increase of 5.36% over 2011.