PET/CT
What is PET/CT?
An imaging examination that allows the specialist to verify the disease in the body is a positron emission tomography (PET) study. The scan uses a special coloring that contains radioactive tracers. If these tracers are ingested, inhaled, or inserted into your arms through a wound, which depends on the portion of the anatomy.
Why is PET/CT done and who needs it?
The trackers help your doctor to see how your organs and tissues work when they are sensed by a PET scanner. The tracer can accumulate in regions of elevated chemical activity which is beneficial because of the greater degree of chemical activity of certain tissues and diseases of the body. These disease areas should appear in the PET scan as bright spots.
The PET scan can measure blood circulation, use of oxygen, the sugar use of your body etc. Usually, an ambulatory treatment is a PET scan. A PET-CT scan combines a CT scan and a PET scan. You can do the test the day after the test is done. It provides comprehensive cancer details.
The CT scan takes a series of x-rays all around the body and incorporates them to create a 3D image. PET scans show areas of your body where cells are more involved than usual using a slight radioactive medication.
The metabolic rates in cancer cells are higher than non-cancer cells. Due to this high degree of chemical activity, cancer cells appear on PET scans as bright spots. PET scans are also valuable for cancer screening as well as for:
- See the propagation of cancer.
- Seeing how cancer treatment works.
- Regulation of a recurrence of cancer.
Your doctor should however read these scans carefully because it may look like cancer in a scan under non-cancer conditions. Strong tumors are also normal in PET scans. It does not exist.
PET scans show areas in the heart that are lowered by blood flow. This is due to a decreased blood flow in the healthy heart tissue than in the unhealthy tissue or tissue. Different light ranges and colors in the scan show various stages of tissue quality, and you and your doctor will determine whether to proceed better.