By allowing for earlier detection of medical disorders, diagnostic health imaging technology has revolutionized healthcare, reducing the need for unnecessary invasive exploratory processes and improving patient outcomes. The diagnostic imaging services at Health Images are extensive.
Let’s dive deeper into diagnostic imaging and learn the many imaging modalities available.
What purposes does diagnostic imaging serve?
Doctors at CT Scan Centres in Bangalore can examine inside organs and tissues with diagnostic imaging to look for disease or injury. Various devices and techniques can capture images of bodily processes and structures. Based on the area of the body being examined and your symptoms, your doctor will decide which imaging test(s) are necessary.
These days, there are a plethora of imaging tests that may be performed with minimal discomfort or inconvenience to the patient. However, some will necessitate that you be immobile within the machine for extended periods, which may cause some pain. There is a risk of exposure to radiation during specific tests.
Some imaging procedures involve the insertion of a small camera via a thin, lengthy tube into the patient’s body. The word “scope” is used to describe this instrument. Afterward, they’ll insert the scope into a suitable entrance in your body to examine internal organs like your lungs, heart, or colon. Some procedures may necessitate anesthesia at CT Scan Centres in Bangalore.
Various Imaging Procedures Used for Diagnosis
What kind of day-to-day improvements can you anticipate from your training? As a diagnostic imaging specialist, these are the seven most common operations you’ll help with.
- X-Rays
X-rays are the most prevalent type of diagnostic imaging test in hospitals because the phrase “X-ray” encompasses so many different types of imaging. X-rays can help find the source of pain, assess the severity of an injury, monitor the development of a disease, and judge the success of a treatment plan.
With X-rays, a small amount of radiation is directed at a specific body area to create an image. The radiologic technologist must ensure that the patient maintains image quality by donning metal ornaments or wearing too-snug clothing. The next step is to place the patient appropriately. After those details are settled, it’s time to take some images of the inside workings of the body.
- A computed tomography scan
CT scans, sometimes called CAT or computed axial tomography scans, provide medical professionals with cross-sectional images of the body at CT Scan in Bangalore. More information can be gleaned from the cross-sectional images than from a regular X-ray. When something unusual emerges on an X-ray, a CT scan is typically requested as a further step.
The patient is wheeled into the middle of the CAT scanner’s massive donut shape, where images are captured. Some diagnostic procedures benefit from the visualisation provided by contrast dye, either orally ingested by the patient or injected into a vein.
During a CT Scan in Bangalore, the technologist prepares the scanner and patient, then exits the room when the patient is placed on the scanner bed. The technologist operates the scanner from an adjacent control room as the subject is carefully moved through its centre.
- MRI
Magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) is another technique that can be used for cross-sectional imaging. MRIs are on par with CAT scans when it comes to imaging soft structures like organs and tendons. Unlike a CT scan, which uses ionizing radiation, an MRI uses radio waves coupled with magnetic fields to produce an image.
MRIs are generally considered safer because they don’t involve radiation, although they take longer to perform. Compared to a CAT scan, which can take as little as five minutes, an MRI might take anywhere from thirty minutes to an hour or more.
- A Mammogram
In the fight against breast cancer, preventative (screening) and diagnostic (diagnostic) mammograms are available. The first step in diagnosing breast cancer is screening mammography. If a breast lump or thickening has been discovered, diagnostic mammography can determine if cancer is present. Preventing breast cancer requires a strong focus on early detection.
Best practices for technologists vary from one type of examination to the next. During screenings, it is common to take many pictures of each breast. When doing diagnostic exams, however, the technologist will take many more photos from various angles. Medical professionals can inspect any worrisome spots by magnifying the photographs.
- Ultrasound
An ultrasound uses high-frequency sound waves to create images of the inside of a patient’s body, also known as sonography. It’s commonly used to discover abnormalities in organs and blood arteries considered soft tissues. Ultrasounds have replaced x-rays as the preferred method of examining pregnant women.
How you get ready for an ultrasound will vary from test to exam. Patients must fast (water is permitted) before undergoing any abdominal examination. Patients are lubricated before they lie down on an exam table. Moving across the skin, a transducer transmits high-frequency sound waves into the body. What’s going on inside the body can be visualized thanks to the sound waves.
- Fluoroscopy
Although other diagnostic procedures can be compared to still photographs, fluoroscopy resembles a moving depiction of inside body processes. This is because fluoroscopy displays the motion of the body.
Contrast dyes are frequently used in the treatment because they reveal the dye’s path through the body. This process sends signals from an X-ray beam to a monitor. The evaluation of bones, joints, organs, veins, and other soft tissues is possible with fluoroscopy. Fluoroscopy is commonly used in blood flow tests.
- PET scans
A positron emission tomography (PET) scan, also known as a positron emission tomography (PET), is similar to illness detection in the body since it reveals issues occurring at the cellular level. Tracers that emit radioactive radiation are injected into the patient. PET scans can discover problems before they worsen, thanks to the tracers.
Tracers can be administered via intravenous injection, inhaled gas, or ingested compound, depending on the treatment. Tracers have to make their way through the body; thus, scanning must wait roughly an hour.
When the time comes, the patient will lie on a table that is slid inside an O-shaped machine. After the technologist tells the patient to hold their breath, they should remain immobile for the duration of the procedure.
Conclusion
It’s natural to be curious about the specifics of whatever medical imaging exam your doctor has ordered if you’re the patient in the issue. The correct images for your radiologist to review are gathered by technologists using modalities (many kinds). A CT scan would be the modality of choice if you were being examined for a concussion. Nevertheless, an X-ray is the modality of choice for doing mammography.
UVA Radiology and Medical Imaging use each imaging modality for various diagnostic procedures. Modalities vary in the conditions they can assist radiologists in diagnosing, the kind of images they can collect, and the equipment they utilise. Discover the ins and outs of the five most frequent imaging modalities we use here at the lab: X-ray, CT, MRI, ultrasound, and PET.