SANTA CRUZ DE TENERIFE, Feb. 2 (EUROPA PRESS) –
The Nuclear Medicine service at Nuestra Señora de Candelaria University Hospital (Tenerife) has been upgraded with the addition of a gamma camera and a PET-CT. As per a press release from the Department of Health of the Government of the Canary Islands, this expansion required an investment of over three million euros.
This enhancement enables professionals to conduct studies with enhanced diagnostic precision of tissues or organs, along with understanding their metabolic activity. Additionally, the integration of this new equipment results in improved outcomes while reducing the radiation dose administered to the patient.
This advancement is a significant stride in pathology studies, particularly in services such as Digestive, Cardiology, Pulmonology, or Endocrinology, among others.
The Gamma Camera
The gamma camera, involving a 1.23 million euro investment, is an image capture device that utilizes gamma radiation. This radiation is injected into the patient using radiopharmaceuticals to subsequently generate a two-dimensional image of the targeted organ or tissue. The resulting image, known as scintigraphy, provides insights into the functioning of the tissue or organ being analyzed.
Moreover, this enables expedited studies, thereby reducing the radiation dose to patients. It also facilitates optimization of treatments by segmenting the affected area and semi-automatically calculating the therapeutic dose tailored to each lesion and patient.
The PET-CT
The PET-CT, with a cost of 1.8 million euros, employs a non-invasive diagnostic technique to capture images of the patient’s body, providing insights into its activity and metabolism. Cells with higher metabolic activity, such as tumor cells, can capture more of the radioactive substance used during the procedure. This equipment allows for early detection of injuries that were previously challenging to locate.
