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Itongadol.- There are approximately 50 PET/MRI machines in the world, and one of them just became operational in Israel.
A Positron Emission Tomography (PET)/ Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI) machine is hybrid imaging modality that has received a great deal of attention in its emerging clinical applications as well as the preclinical field in recent years since first becoming available in 2010. Several designs based on several different types of PET detector technology have been developed, and one of the advanced imaging machines was recently installed in Assuta Hospital in Tel Aviv.
The machine combines the two types of scans and uses both a type of sugar common to PET scans, as well as magnetic scans to detect cancer, cardiac issues and dementia. The main fields of application for such a machine are oncology, neurology, and cardiology.
While the cost of the machine is over 15 million shekel, the advantages of the machine are clear. The machine provides incredibly clear images while subjecting the patients to only one tenth of the radiation that is present in regular MRI machines.
The machine that was recently installed in Assuta hospital is currently the only one of its kind in the entire Middle East.
Due to the size and intricacies of the machine, Channel 2 news reported that the installation process took over ten hours and that engineers had to knock down an external wall of the hospital in order to get the machine inside the building.
The new machine with its increased accuracy will be used to determine and diagnose whether a patient is suffering from a slipped disk, cerebral injuries, tumors, cancerous growths or malignancies, and even provide early warnings of breast cancer.