Frankford Hospital – Bucks County recently added a state-of-the-art GE Lightspeed Pro16* scanner to its Department of Radiology, expanding the ability to provide noninvasive vascular testing and other assessments.  This new technology takes CT scanning to a whole new level, producing images that are more detailed, are completed more quickly and can, in some cases, reduce the need for more invasive testing.  By using a computer to combine multiple images or “slices’” of the body part being studied, CT scans build detailed pictures of the body’s internal organs and structures.

Frankford’s new CT scanner is a "16-slice" machine, taking 16 images of narrow slices simultaneously.  In the past, a scan could take 30 minutes.  With the new scanner, images can be generated in less than two minutes, helping physicians to diagnose and treat patients more quickly.  The GE Lightspeed Pro16* is also available at Torresdale.  The new CT scanner will soon be used to provide CT coronary angiography, which allows physicians to gain a non-invasive assessment of the heart for certain conditions, at Bucks County and Torresdale in early 2005.

Published: 2-7-2005