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 BOSTON (Ivanhoe Broadcast News) -- A new generation of imaging technology is wowing doctors and patients alike. This speedy, pinpoint-accurate machine is changing how doctors view the body.
Nancy Kaman has a mystery illness, suffering from an inexplicable fever. Doctors are getting a look inside, with a powerful new computed tomography scanner.
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Like older models, this CT scanner takes cross-sectional pictures of the body using X-rays and detectors. What's different is its speed. In the 70s, it used to take five minutes to take one rotation. "In the early 90s, we went down to one second per one rotation, and towards the late 1990s, we went to about half a second for four slices in one rotation," says radiologist Vassilios Raptopoulos, M.D., from Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center in Boston.
 With this new scanner, doctors can now take 64 slices every half second. The new scanner is so fast that it can basically freeze the motion of the heart. And because it's quick, patients don't seem to mind. "The other advantage for them is the diagnosis is much more accurate. So you get a better result," Dr. Raptopoulos tells Ivanhoe.
The scanner can quickly solve cases like Kaman's. Dr. Raptopoulos says, "Here we have an area of increased density, which is probably some infectious, some material, that is probably causing her the fever."
Kaman says getting the diagnosis with the CT scan was easier than she thought. She says: "No pain. I mean, it was wonderful -- 100 percent comfort."
 Doctors say the speed of the scanner will help them unravel more medical mysteries ... one scan at a time.
The new technology is expensive -- about $1.5 million per machine. It costs about $500 to $1000 per scan for patients. Currently, most insurance companies cover the cost of the CT scan for the abdomen and chest, but it's not yet covered for scans of the heart.
This article was reported by Ivanhoe.com, who offers Medical Alerts by e-mail every day of the week. To subscribe, go to: http://www.ivanhoe.com/newsalert/.
If you would like more information, please contact:
Kathleen Cosgrove
Public Relations
Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center
330 Brookline Ave.
Boston, MA 02215
(617) 667-7305
kcosgrov@bidmc.harvard.edu
http://www.bidmc.harvard.edu
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