Mobile PET/CT
What Is a PET/CT Scan?
PET/CT combines two powerful imaging technologies in a single machine.
PET (positron emission tomography) shows how your heart is working. Before the scan, you receive a small, safe amount of a radioactive tracer through an IV. The tracer travels wherever your blood flows, and the scanner detects it, creating a detailed map of blood flow through your heart muscle. Areas receiving plenty of blood glow brightly; areas starved by a narrowed artery show up dim.
CT (computed tomography) shows how your heart is built, a detailed X-ray picture of its structure and position.
Fused together, these images tell us both what your heart looks like and how well every region of it is being fed. It is among the most accurate stress tests in all of cardiology, sharper than a standard nuclear stress test, especially for patients with larger body sizes, and it uses a lower radiation dose with a much shorter visit.
Why "Mobile"?
A PET/CT scanner is a multimillion-dollar machine that once required traveling to a large hospital. Today, that same technology is built into a specially designed coach that brings the scanner directly to our Westfield office on scheduled days. You get university-hospital imaging with hometown convenience, familiar faces, easy parking, and no downtown campus to navigate.
What Should I Expect?
The visit is simple. You'll relax while we place a small IV and give the tracer. Instead of walking on a treadmill, most patients receive a medication that briefly makes the heart work as if it were exercising, ideal for those who can't run on a treadmill due to knee, hip, lung, or balance problems. You'll lie comfortably on the scanner table while it takes pictures at rest and during that simulated "exercise."
The entire appointment usually takes about an hour, often shorter than a traditional nuclear stress test, which can consume half a day. There's no confinement like an MRI tube; the scanner is an open ring. You can typically eat, drive, and return to your day right afterward.
What Can It Find?
PET/CT helps us detect blocked or narrowed coronary arteries, measure exactly how much heart muscle is affected, determine whether damaged muscle is still alive and could recover if we restore blood flow, and evaluate certain inflammatory conditions of the heart. In short, it helps us decide, with confidence, whether you need medication, a stent, surgery, or simply reassurance.
Big-City Imaging, Hometown Care
The right picture changes everything. If your doctor has recommended advanced heart imaging, ask us about our mobile PET/CT, the most advanced look at your heart, without leaving the community you call home.
