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Blount Memorial Hospital recently added two Toshiba Aquilion 64-slice CT scanners to the hospital’s imaging technology offerings.

One scanner has been operational at the Blount Memorial Diagnostic Center at Springbrook since early this year, and the second scanner, located in the Blount Memorial Radiology Department at the hospital, has been up and running since last month.

Blount Memorial radiologist Dr. Craig Miller said the CT scanner is a diagnostic tool that provides 64 different images each time the machine’s drum rotates, allowing diagnosing physicians more and more-detailed views of the patient’s body area.

“With the 64-slice scanner, the main advantage is that when we scan a patient, we can cut through (with photographic capabilities) the area in question like a loaf of bread, but then we can look at it in different angles with equal resolution, increasing diagnostic accuracy,” Miller said.

Miller added that the rotating drum that patients have revolving around them has a spiral-like effect, where 64 bank detectors are shining through them capturing images. The 64-slice option has a slicing thickness of .5 millimeters compared to .625 millimeters with a four-slice scanner.

The 64-slice CT scanner is a tool that Miller said radiology employees and radiologists are trying to use for all diagnostic procedures, but most commonly for abdominal pains, staging cancers, sinus troubles, acute strokes or bleeds, kidney stones and pulmonary embolisms. With the addition of both units, the Diagnostic Center at Springbrook will offer the 64-slice option, while patients at the hospital will have available to them the 64-slice option as well as an eight-slice CT that includes PET capabilities and a four-slice machine.

Miller emphasized that different conditions and emergency cases may dictate which CT machine is used, but overall, the same level of information is retrieved when it comes to diagnostic imagery.

“The 64-slice scanner provides the speed to do cardiac studies in the future,” he said.

The two new additions — which equate to roughly $2 million — are especially beneficial to those patients who have to hold their breath for an optimal reading during the diagnostic procedure. Miller explained that “64-slice” means the procedure is 16 times faster than the traditional four-slice scanner.

“Lots of patients won’t notice the speed change,” he added, emphasizing again that it will have the biggest impact on those requiring scans of the chest or abdomen.

The Diagnostic Center at Springbrook is part of the Blount Memorial Health Center at Springbrook on Associates Drive in Alcoa. In addition to the new CT offering, the center offers other modalities including MRIs, diagnostic X-rays and the soon-to-be-added 4D ultrasound capabilities.