Good Samaritan Announces New Imaging Technology to Help Detect Cancer,

Neurological Disease & Heart Damage

(August 20, 2007) - Good Samaritan Regional Medical Center, Pottsville, will introduce combined Computed Tomography/Positron Emission Tomography-PET/CT-scanning on Friday, August 24.   The PET/CT scanner allows physicians to diagnose and determine the extent of various cancers, neurological disorders like Alzheimer’s disease and epilepsy, and damage to cardiac muscle after a heart attack.

PET/CT is a medical imaging procedure that provides physicians with information about the body’s chemistry, cell function, and location of disease – information not available through CT, MRI, X-ray, or physical examination. Unlike CT or MRI, which look at anatomy or body structure, PET/CT studies body function or the biology of diseases.  The PET/CT study can assists physicians in providing more appropriate treatment plans and allow for earlier detection of the disease.  Plus, scan times are shorter for the patient.

According to Stephen Whitmoyer, MD, Radiology Medical Director, “Many patients could potentially forego the trauma and cost of unnecessary surgery, and receive earlier, more appropriate therapy, if the extent of their disease can be accurately diagnosed beforehand.  PET/CT can provide that information by visualizing the extent and metabolic activity of the disease.  The technology combines the best that both CT and PET have to offer.”

Good Samaritan has contracted with DMS Imaging, a division of DMS Health Group, Fargo, ND, to provide this service at the Good Samaritan Medical Mall, Good Samaritan MRI Center, 700 Schuylkill Manor Road, Ste. 2, Pottsville.