Services

Hagerstown Imaging provides a variety of high-quality medical and diagnostic imaging services. Hagerstown Imaging is also involved in brain research projects for funded grant projects with major national institutions.

PET Scan

How does a PET Scan work?A PET Scan integrates two technologies to view your body. Computed Tomography (CT) and a radioactive material (tracer). The tracer is what allows doctors to see how your body tissues absorb and use different chemicals.

001

PET Scans allow doctors to measure a range of activity, including blood flow, blood volume, oxygen usage, tissue PH (acidity), glucose (sugar) metabolism and drug activity. PET is very useful in watching the activity of cancerous tumors. Due to the fact that the malignant cells grow at such a fast rate, they metabolize more sugar than normal cells and can give your doctor a glimpse into how aggressive a tumor is or how its growth is slowed by treatment therapies.

A specially trained nuclear medicine technologist will perform the test. Our physician will review the images and report the findings.

Other common uses of PET are in field of Neuropsychatric Disorders. For example PET is useful in pre-surgical evaluation of medically uncontrolled seizures. By detecting metabolic changes in the brain, the surgeon can pinpoint the nonfunctioning area of the brain causing seizures.

PET can also help in diagnosing Dementia and to differentiate Alzheimer’s disease from other causes of Dementia. PET can also stage vasious brain tumors and help to differentiate residual or recurrent tumor from radiation necrosis.

  • There have also been rapid advances being made to expand clinical applications of PET/CT scanning in new conditions an disorders. We offer Ga- 68 Pet scan for study of somatostatin receptors in patients with carcinoid tumors and Neuroendocrine tumors.
  • We also offer F-18 PET bone scans.
    A Bone Scan is a nuclear scanning test that identifies new areas of bone growth or breakdown in the body's skeletal system. Bone Scans with sodium fluoride (NaF) at Hagerstown Imaging evaluate diseases and conditions that affect the skeletal system. These bone scans provide improved anatomic detail over conventional gamma systems. In addition, since images are correlated with CT scan images, they provide greater accuracy in detecting the extent of osteolytic and osteoblastic cancer metastases (spreading).
  • We also offer F-18 labelled brain amyloid imaging scans useful in detecting amyloid paques depositions commonly seen in patients with Alzheimer’s Disease.
  • We also offer palliative treatment of bony metastases in prostate cancer patients with refractory treatment.
  • We will offer newer tracer PET scans and new treatment methods with radionuclides as these are developed and become available for clinical use.

CT Scan

How does a CT Scan work?CT rapidly creates detailed pictures of the body, including the brain, chest, spine and abdomen. It is able to detect and localize changes in the body structure or anatomy, such as the size, shape and exact location of an abnormal growth, a sizeable tumor or a musculoskeletal injury.

The test may be used to:

  • Diagnose an infection
  • Guide a surgeon to the right area during a biopsy
  • Identify masses and tumors, including cancer
  • Study blood vessels
100203

Our physician evaluates damage to the organs from any cancer that has spread (metastasized) from other areas. PET Scans often reveal problems much earlier than typical X-rays and have become a valuable screening study and a tool for assessing response to therapy for cancer that has spread to the organs.

PET Scan Benefits at Hagerstown Imaging

  • Outstanding image quality
  • Helps assess responses to therapies
  • Aids in critical treatment decisions
  • Highly accurate in detecting bone metastatic disease.