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The Past, Present and Future of PET/MRI Scanners in Teleradiology Services

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vestarad Teleradiology
The Past, Present and Future of PET/MRI Scanners in Teleradiology Services

Telemedicine is the amalgamation of numerous technologies to transfer of clinical information. Empowered by the internet, telemedicine has expanded its reach almost across every medical specialty such as radiology and is termed “teleradiology.” Radiology solutions encompass the techniques used by medical professionals to capture images of the human body to aid in the process of diagnosis or treatment such as X-rays, MRIs and ultrasounds.

Preliminary Days of PET and MRI Scanners: Since its development, MRI has proven to be a versatile technique with its prominent use in diagnostic and biochemical procedures. Its preliminary interpretation services involved magnetic resonance imaging to create detailed images of the organs and tissues within the body, but the major throwback of the technique was the time and also that patients with claustrophobia may find the treatment suffocating.                     

On the other hand, PET scan involves radioactive tracers, essentially glucose with the radioactive component attached, which makes it very easy for body to eliminate the tracer and hence long interval detections are quite difficult to perform with the technique. These limitations were something that has put down the path for future PET/MRI scanners. 

Present: Remote radiology has proved to improve patient care by allowing radiologists to provide their expertise without being present with the patient. With the advancement in the diagnostic techniques, the all-inclusive radiology services becomes less time-consuming, imaging the most complex cases, cost-effective and most importantly available to almost every section of the society. One such technique is PET/MRI.

PET/MRI, a two-in-one test that combines metabolic and molecular information of PET with anatomic details of MRI systems to enhance the image quality for cancer in areas of the neck, brain and pelvis. Presently, the leading clinical fields of PET-MRI are oncology, cardiology and neurology to produce some of the most detailed pictures inside your body. Though the technique has seen many modifications in the past years, research studies are still in the process to understand the new PET-MRI diagnostic method. 

Future of PET/MRI scanners: Now, how PET/MRI imaging will evolve, will entirely depend on future requirements but patient-wise, there’s a major assessment of a reduced radiation impact, especially for children. However, CT imaging is also evolving and this could lead to the continuing use of PET/CT.

Like every new technology, PET/CT also struggled with its adoption at the beginning, which could happen with PET/MRI devices but the upcoming ones could give PET/MRI an advantage over PET/CT systems in the future. 

The continuum of diagnostic care has evolved technologies which may support one technique by eliminating others or could standardize PET/MRI in the diagnosis world, are the possible questions that only the future could reveal.

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