Gurgaon hospital gets cutting-edge technology for cancer detection

New Delhi Feb 22 (IANS) A private hospital in the national capital region Friday launched cutting-edge imaging technology for early cancer detection, which works on a combination of m-Dixon and diffusion weighted imaging with background suppression (DWIBS).

While m-Dixon is an established Magnetic Resonance Imaging Technique for liver imaging that provides four sets of images: water-only, fat-only, and phase images (IP and OP), diffusion weighted imaging with background is used for whole-body imaging.

“The fusion of the two cutting edge technologies m-DIXON and DWIBS in advanced Magnetic Resonance (MR) provides high resolution images of one millimetre thickness that enable the detection of tiny tumours,” R.K. Gupta, director and head of the department of radiology and imaging at Fortis Memorial Research Institute said as the technology was launched.

Although m-Dixon has been in use for 30 years, DWIBS has been developed by Taro Takahara of the Tokai University School of Engineering in Japan.

“The technique has already been used for more than 30 patients and the results have been more than satisfying” said Gupta.

“The technology can also be used as screening tool to identify infection or cancer at an early stage. It helps in assessing disease load in already diagnosed patients, and can pick up lesions unrelated to the primary disease,” Gupta said.

“The cost of fusing this new technique with the MR will be the same as the cost of a normal MR for the patients; it will only take 15 minutes for the whole body MRI to be done. Less time and cost and accurate results are our priority,” Gupta said.

The launch took place on the sidelines of a three-day symposium on advanced MR application in neuro and body imaging that is attended by delegates from across the world.

IANS 2013-02-22 20:18:05