Bangkok--18 Jun--Bumrungrad International Bumrungrad International has installed and launched the services of the PET/CT (Posi-tron Emission Tomography/ Computed Tomography), a high resolution medical imaging device used for early cancer detection that enables doctors to pinpoint the location of abnormalities and diagnose symptoms with precise accuracy. The scanner installed to provide services at Bumrungrad is the PET/CT Biograph 64 TruePoint, Siemens’ latest technology and one of the first to be installed in Thailand. PET/CT provides high resolution images even in traces of the disease as small as 3-6 millimeters in size. This instrument provides an anatomical map for pinpointing the ex-act location of tumors in the body with 64-slices per revolution in only 0.33 seconds, thus providing enhanced quality and faster views for both 2 and 3 dimension images. Furthermore, the PET/CT provides diagnostic details about the stages of the disease that may be overlooked by other methods such as CT or MRI while providing a safe and painless examination yielding early detection. The PET/CT can be used to effectively determine cancer stages, responses to chemotherapy or follow up on treatment outcomes, and the metastasis or spread of cancer to various organs of the body and relapse. This allows doctors to accurately diagnose the stages of the disease and guide individual patients to more accurate radiotherapy treatment. The PET/CT is nuclear medical equipment implementing the highly efficient hybrid technology of the PET and CT in detecting cancer. Prior to a PET/CT scan, the patient is intravenously injected with a radiopharmaceutical substance that is a derivative of glu-cose labeled with a positron-emitting radioactive substance. The PET/CT will then measure the gamma rays emitted from the patient’s body that has been injected with the aforementioned radiopharmaceutical substance which will collect in various cells of the body. Although all cells use glucose, cancerous cells are highly metabolic and re-quire more glucose than other cells, thus causing more gamma ray detection in cancerous cells than other areas. This makes it easy for the PET/CT to detect cancer. In addition, the PET/CT can be used to detect brain abnormalities such as Alzheimer’s disease and epilepsy Dr. Chamaree Chuapetcharasopon, Medical Director, Bumrungrad International, explains that the application of new nuclear medical technology in the highly efficient PET/CT cancer detection instrument concurs with the hospital’s policy of being the leader in highly efficient medical technology to assist doctors in precise diagnosis of disease. She adds, “Not only does the selected PET/CT provide better quality images, but it also enables us to serve patients twice as fast as previous technology, thus enabling doctors to accurately plan treatment for individual patients in a timely manner, which has always been of foremost importance to the hospital in providing services to patients.” Dr. Narongsak Kiatikajornthada, Hematology and Oncology specialist at Bumrun-grad International adds, “The PET/CT can precisely pinpoint abnormalities, even with very tiny anomalies in cancerous cells in the early stages. It can also show the stage of the disease and help doctors make more efficient treatment plans than in the past — treatment that is the most suitable for each patient. In addition, the PET/CT is highly ef-fective in following up on chemotherapy outcomes, where traces of the disease cannot be identified by other methods.” Mr. Albert Ritzer, Executive Vice President and Head of Medical Solution of Sie-mens Limited said, “Siemens is proud that Bumrungrad hospital trusts a Siemens’ product that will help early detection of tumors and staging of cancers. Due to sharp in-creased count rates, Biograph TruePoint PET/CT provides the most breathtaking PET images ever seen and together with the true volumetric CT it enables doctors to pinpoint lesions as small as 3.0 mm. Siemens believes that this latest technology of molecular imaging will help the hospital be a leader in medical technology to diagnose cancer, benefiting both Thai and foreign patients. Currently the Siemens PET/CT has been installed at 3 institutes in Thai-land; Chulabhorn Research Institute, Chulalongkorn Hospital and the latest model at Bumrungrad International.About Bumrungrad International Bumrungrad International is Southeast Asia’s premier private hospital and a regional referral center for advanced care, offering 554 beds, 30 specialty centers, 940 medi-cal specialists and over 800 nurses. It is Asia’s first JCI accredited hospital and serves more than one million patients yearly from 190 different countries.About Siemens Medical Solutions Siemens Medical Solutions is one of the world’s largest suppliers to the healthcare industry. The company is a renowned medical solutions provider with core compe-tence and innovative strength in diagnostic and therapeutic technologies as well as in knowledge engineering, including information technology and system integration. With its laboratory diagnostics acquisitions, Siemens Medical Solutions is the first fully integrated diagnostics company, bringing together imaging and lab diagnostics, therapy, and healthcare information technology solutions, supplemented by consult-ing and support services. Siemens Medical Solutions delivers solutions across the entire continuum of care — from prevention and early detection, to diagnosis, therapy and care. Additionally, Siemens is the global market leader in innovative hearing in-struments. The company employs more than 49,000 people worldwide and operates in 130 countries. In the fiscal year 2007 (Sept. 30), Siemens Healthcare reported sales of ?9.85 billion, orders of ?10.27 billion, and group profit of ?1.32 billion. Fur-ther information can be found by visiting www.siemens.com/healthcare. For press inquiries, please contact: Public Relations Dept. Tel 0 2667 2212 E-mail: [email protected] www.bumrungrad.com