Portable scanner doing double duty

AMERICAN FORK — A portable new machine used by Intermountain Healthcare hospitals is helping Utah cancer victims from Ogden to St. George get faster tests and better results.

The machine, a GE Lightspeed, combines CT scanner and PET scanner into one device. Though the instruments aren't new individually, the combination is a recent development. By including both scanners together, doctors can get better results.

Here's how the machine works: First, patients are placed on a movable bed that fits into the PET/CT scanner. The patient undergoes the CT scan, which takes 25 seconds. Then, without moving the patient from machine to another one, which could cause irregularities in scan images, the computer-operated bed slides into the PET scanner for imaging, which takes 25 minutes.

The machine does have other uses, but "cancer is far and away the No. 1 reason," said Daniel Rasband, a diagnostic radiologist at American Fork Hospital.

To get more precise readings for possible cancer growths, doctors inject patients with a radioactive substance called FDG. When scanned, the liquid lights up cancer cells, making it easier for doctors to diagnose correctly.

Currently, the machine can scan six to eight patients a day, depending on the tests.

As of yet, Intermountain Healthcare doesn't have a full-time scanner in Utah County. The one in use at American Fork Hospital comes in a custom-built trailer. It spends two days a week in American Fork, one day in St. George and two more days in Ogden, said Janet Frank, an Intermountain Healthcare spokeswoman.

Intermountain Health- care is considering building a machine for Utah Valley Regional Medical Center, Rasband said.

The scanner is no small instrument. It costs about $3 million and weighs about 55,000 pounds.

"There's enough lead in this thing to drop it right through the parking garage," Rasband said.

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E-mail: jburke@desnews.com