Home    About Us    Meet the Staff    What is PET?        PET & Cancer     Test Preparation     Our Physicians     Insurance Coverage   Newsletter     Medicare & PET    
PET Links     Contact Us       Map   



What is PET?

 PET (positron emission tomography) is a safe, painless medical imaging technique that uses radiopharmaceticals to assist in visualizing various conditions which alter body metabolism.  When undergoing PET imaging, patients receive a radiopharmaceutical prior to imaging.  After a relaxation period of approximately one hour (to allow full circulation of the medicine throughout the body) patients undergo the painless, noiseless PET imaging procedure in a device which looks similar to a CT scanner.

Although various natural compounds such as water and amino acids (the building blocks of protein) can be used in PET imaging, the most common PET imaging procedures utilize a natural sugar compound known as FDG, or fluorodeoxyglucose.  To satisfy their increased metabolic rates, many cancers devour these simple sugars at abnormally high rates.  By tracking the accumulation of the sugar compound, PET imaging can safely and easily detect areas of cancer that might otherwise go undetected using more common CT or MRI imaging.

Older imaging techniques such as CT or MRI work by showing anatomic detail of a patient’s body.   PET is unique in that it is the only imaging technique that can identify areas of increased metabolic activity—often times identifying evidence of disease before anatomic changes are seen on more traditional imaging studies.  In many cases the result will be that PET imaging will provide a more accurate assessment of disease, often changing your physician’s treatment plans to better suit your true condition.

Positron Emission Tomography (PET) can be useful in the diagnosis, management and follow up of a variety of conditions, including:

Cancers such as lung, colorectal, breast, esophageal, pancreatic, testicular, renal, gastric, head and neck, brain, thyroid, ovarian, cervical, lymphoma, multiple myeloma, melanoma, and sarcoma.Brain conditions such as seizures, epilepsy, Parkinson’s, various dementias  and cardiac viability studies

PET imaging is an easy and painless procedure; the actual imaging takes about an hour.  In order to insure the highest quality PET study, we usually ask our patients to follow some simple dietary guidelines the day prior to their PET imaging.  Diabetic patients can discuss their unique diet and medication requirements with Dr. Stobbe by phone to insure their preparations are tailored to suit their individual needs.  Pregnant women should not undergo PET imaging until after childbirth; breastfeeding patients can be scanned, but must follow certain post PET imaging breastfeeding guidelines for 24 hours following their test.

If you have questions regarding PET imaging or would like additional information about this exciting new imaging technique, we would love to hear from you—please call us at (559) 449-2640.