PET-CT Scan

Friday 16th Jan

The week was pretty busy and both dental examination plus jaw and teeth x-ray was done. The decision is that one tooth will be pulled out, every thing else were fine.

So in the end of the week it was time for the PET-CT scan and my dad and I went into the hospital. This is a special scan which can effectively detect any malign tumours and metastasis in the body.
It has been shown that PET-CT scan is better and more sensitive compared with when a PET scan and CT scan are done separately. A PET-CT has a PET camera and CT scanner in the same machine and is mainly used on patients with oncology diseases.

In simple terms it works like this:

• The patient (in this case my dad) is taken into a room. Here they check his blood glucose which was fine (5.2mmol/L). This is done by a simple finger prick. Then they inject a trace substance such as FDG intravenous.
• My dad then had to sit in a room which should be pretty warm and wait for 1 hour so that the FDG has enough time to become concentrated to cancer tumours and metastasis, while eliminated from other tissues in the body. This is due to that cancer cells have a higher uptake of FDG due to higher metabolism compared to other cells. It is important that you have not been eating for at least 4 hours before the examination. This is so that the FDG does not have to compete with the body’s own glucose (blod socker) about the uptake to the cells (that’s why they take a blood glucose test before).
• After an hour he was taken into the room with the PET-CT machine. They then start with a CT scan which was taken from thighs up to and including the skull. This is followed by the PET camera which can read how the FDG has been taken up in different tissues.
• The whole scan takes around 30-40 min. (quicker then when PET and CT are done separately).
  
  After this was done we could go back home and wait for the results.
  Fingers crossed that there are no further metastasis.

Speciellt till er svenskar:
2007 så fanns det 5 PET-CT utrustningar i Sverige. De finns i Linköping, Uppsala, Lund, Malmö och Stockholm. Vet ej om någon mer har tillkommit på senaste året…Dessa används fämst för cancerdiagnostik, dvs för att hitta elakartade tumörer och metastaser. De används också för att följa olika typer av cancerbehandlingar och vilken effect dessa har och för att diagnostisera misstänkta återfall.
Kostnaden för en PET-CT utrustning är ca 20 miljoner riksdaler, men för att kunna driva den så behövs bunker, hus, kemiutrymmen med production etc och detta kostar totalt ca 60 miljoner. Det kan jämföras med de 10 milljoner som en CT installation kostar. En PET –CT undersökning kostar ca 17300 skr. En ENDA….under den tiden vi var inne så var det minst 5-6 stycken som undersöktes och detta betalar man inte mer en max som ett läkarbesök…..
Jag kommer aldrig ifrågasätta att vi betalar mycket skatt i Sverige. OK, nu bor jag ju inte i Sverige för tillfället, men den dag jag flyttar hem så betalar jag med glädje!!