PGI gets state-of-the-art CT scan machine

Tribune News Service

Chandigarh, December 3

The PGI has acquired a state-of-the-art CT scan machine, billed as the most powerful in the world.

“This is the most powerful and fastest CT scan machine, which will make a huge difference in patient care at the PGI,” said Prof MS Sandhu, Head, Department of Radiodiagnosis and Imaging, PGI. There are few such CT scan machines in India, he said.

The machine allows a cardiac CT to be done in a fraction of a second — within a single heart beat— and without the need for any “beta blockers” to the patient to reduce their heart rate, he said.

It will be beneficial to patients who are critically ill, trauma cases and small children who have difficulty in holding their breath. “With this machine, holding the breath is literally not necessary in most of the critical cases, and the resultant images are of a very high quality, without any motion-induced artifacts,” said Professor Sandhu.

This CT scanner drastically reduces the quantum of X-ray radiation to the patient and also reduces the amount of contrast media required to be injected into patients. With these advantages, the CT examination would now be more “kidney friendly” as a very low volume of contrast would be required to be injected into the patients, he said.