FLORENCE, S.C. -
McLeod Hospital debuted two new, state-of-the-art technologies Tuesday, that will give doctors even more tools when it comes to early detection of lung cancer.
The "Aquilion ONE" is the world's first CT (computed tomography) system that is capable of showing real-time organ functions, such as a heart beating or blood flowing through the brain.
It utilizes 320 rows of detectors, while a typical CT scanner uses 16 or 64.
McLeod hospital is the first hospital in the state to obtain this technology.
The results, are quick and very accurate measures of what's going on inside a patient's body and the new technology allows doctors to get the most realistic view possible while causing minimum inconveniences to patients.
"You can scan more of the body in less time. If there is motion (on the part of the patient), that's not much of a problem for us because we are scanning more quickly," said McLeod Radiologist, Dr. Sam Hill.
The scanner is also much safer for patients, reducing radiation exposure by up to 80 percent.
In addition to that technology, doctors now also have "ClearRead Bone Suppression" imaging software on hand.
The image enhancement technology increases the clarity of chest x-rays by removing bones on the digital image, giving doctors a clear window into the bodies of their patients.
The technology allows doctors to spot potential problems much more quickly and recent studies involving the imaging software show that it helps to enable the detection of one in six previously missed nodules.
"Discovering cancers at an early stage is good or discovering an infiltrate that might have even gone unnoticed for a while," said McLeod Radiologist, Dr. Greg Cleveland.
"We want to get the diagnosis early and we want to treat the patients early, that is the major motivator in all of these things," Cleveland continued.
McLeod physicians diagnose about 1,000 new cases of cancer each year, according to hospital officials.
Lung cancer remains one of the top diagnosed types of cancers in this region.
Dr. Sam Hill points to images taken with McLeod Hospital's new Aquilion ONE CT scanner
