New scanner bost for heart, cancer patients

By KUNA,

London : A pioneering scanner which could improve the diagnosis and treatment of heart and cancer-related illness is to be used in Britain for the first time, it was announced Monday.


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It is hoped thousands of patients every year will benefit from the 1.6 million pounds, three-dimensional CT scanner, doctors said.
The equipment will be based at the University of Edinburgh’s Queen’s Medical Research Institute (QMRI), situated next to the city’s Royal Infirmary.

It has been acquired through a 4 million pounds investment by Royal Bank of Scotland (RBS), which has entered into a joint partnership with the Institute and the state-funded National Health Service, NHS. .

The “QMRI” is the first institute in Britain and one of the first in Europe to use such equipment.

It is hoped the Toshiba scanner – which has taken 10 years and 250 million pounds investment to develop – will be operational by January next year.

Unlike previous scanners, it can capture entire organs, such as the heart or brain in a fraction of a second.

This novel way of image capture means radiation exposure is reduced by 80%, compared with conventional CT scans.

It will also allow medics to carry out cutting-edge research.

Around 25 percent of the scanner’s capacity will be made available to RBS staff, with the remaining 75 percent split between QMRI and the NHS .

Professor David Newby, director of QMRI’s clinical research imaging centre, said: “The CT scanner represents a major advance in imaging the body, and in particular provides the ability to examine the heart and the coronary arteries within one heartbeat, at high resolution and with markedly reduced radiation doses.

“The scanner will enable the centre to carry out cutting-edge research with the ultimate aim of improving treatment for patients.”

Scottish health secretary Nicola Sturgeon said: “Bringing this state-of-the-art scanner to Scotland, ahead of the rest of Europe, is a real coup and the Scottish Government warmly welcomes this initiative.

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