INTEGRIS Grove's Ambulatory Care Center (ACC) houses a digital radiography system that links the ACC with the hospital and the  Professional Center.

• Sentinel Lymph Node Biopsy provides a way to identify whether nodes are involved without removing all of them. Dr. Cotner explains, “Initially developed with melanoma and transferred to breast cancer, it was found that the very first lymph gland that the tumor drained to was the Sentinel Node.” Introducing some material into the tumor and watching the drainage go through identifies the Sentinel Node and other affected nodes. The procedure to read or map drainage is performed in the operating area, where the patient would first receive x-ray and then get the injection. “You don’t just want to find the node, you want to take it out,” emphasizes Dr. Cotner. And the advantage is that the procedure avoids unnecessary surgery in the form of removing lymph glands that are not involved.
  
• Mammo Site is a little blimp used in partial-breast irradiation, and provides a way to give radiation that doesn’t take so long. By placing the blimp where the tumor or malignancy was, patients who qualify can receive treatment—brachytherapy—that is shorter and quicker, often completed in one week.

INTEGRIS Grove patients will now have Monday-access to Positron Emission Tomography (PET), the most advanced molecular imaging available. The unit combines a PET and a CT (computed tomography) scanner in one, and will allow the doctor to observe how the organs and tissues actually function within the body.

With PET scan availability, Dr. Foster will be able to assess the metabolic activity of structures in the body and compare to their anatomic location with CT which will help identify abnormal from normal tissue. It can be further used to evaluate the effectiveness of a particular treatment regimen such as chemotherapy or radiation therapy. PET has traditionally been used to identify malignancies; commonly detecting cancer, brain diseases and other central nervous system disorders, and more recently it has been used to differentiate among the various types of dementia.

Usually performed on an outpatient basis, a PET scan involves injecting a radiotracer into the patient’s bloodstream. The PET scan can often detect very early metabolic changes in the cellular levels of organs or tissues where disease processes often begin their functional changes. Unlike some other imaging studies, such as MRI, which detect early anatomic changes, PET will detect changes in metabolic function that may occur before anatomic structural changes.

Though PET has been around for 8-10 years, only recently has the software become available to fuse the PET to the CT image, which Dr. Foster describes as an incredible breakthrough. The availability of this latest test to area patients will enhance the already state-of-the-art diagnostic treatments provided by INTEGRIS Grove General Hospital.

To learn more about Radiology services offered by INTEGRIS Health, click here.