Mr. Li, the president of a large state-owned enterprise in Xuzhou, had lost weight in the past six months without any other discomfort, and no problems were found in routine examinations. The PET-CT examination revealed an abnormally high FDG (fluoride-labeled deoxyglucose) uptake in the abdomen, indicating an active metabolic lesion and a malignant lesion. Mr. Li was promptly hospitalized and underwent surgery, and the postoperative pathology confirmed that the lesion found by PET-CT was the very same cancer that had caused the phobia. Mr. Li has been doing well for 3 years due to early detection and timely treatment. Mr. Li is a lucky man. So, why is PET-CT examination so superior?
PET/CT (PET-CT), whose full name is Positron Emission Tomography/X-ray Computed Tomography, is the only new imaging device that can display biomolecular metabolism, receptors and neural mediator activities in living bodies, which has been applied to clinical applications in recent years. It injects a certain dose of marked disease “hobbies” into the patient’s body through a vein according to the special “hobbies” of a certain type of disease. After the marker is evenly distributed throughout the body with the blood, these disease “hobbies” will be picked up by the lesions, and the lesions will emit rays to form bright spots due to the uptake of the marked “hobbies”. It is as sensitive as “radar” to catch abnormal signals in the body. For example, for the characteristic that cancer cells like to “eat” glucose, by injecting marked glucose into the body and scanning the whole body with PET/CT, we can determine whether there is cancer and the exact location of cancer as well as whether cancer cells have spread and metastasized based on whether there are special bright spots on the body and the intensity of the bright spots.
The prominent features of PET/CT are “early, accurate and complete”, the so-called “early” refers to the early detection of diseases, especially tumors, as we know that the occurrence and development of tumors is a progressive process, starting with genetic mutations, followed by physiological and biochemical abnormalities, and then morphological abnormalities. The basis of PET/CT imaging is to reflect the physiological and biochemical changes of human metabolism, so it can detect diseases before morphological changes, which is the reason why PET/CT can detect diseases, especially tumors, at an early stage. This is the reason why PET/CT can detect diseases, especially tumors, at an early stage. The so-called “accuracy” refers to the ability to accurately diagnose diseases, especially tumors, as PET/CT can detect abnormalities in the biological behavior of cells and combine them with morphological changes in tissues or organs provided by the same CT machine to diagnose diseases by combining multiple diagnostic information. “The combination of “surface” and “inside” of the disease is naturally superior in the accurate diagnosis of the disease. PET/CT can accurately detect lesions in every part of the body through whole-body scanning, which is especially important for tumor patients, and it is crucial to clarify whether there are metastases in other parts of the body after tumor patients are diagnosed, so that the scope of surgery can be accurately navigated on the one hand, and the possibility of surgery on the other. On the other hand, it provides a basis for the possibility of surgery. PET/CT has become an indispensable and important tool in the diagnosis and treatment of tumors because of its “early, accurate and complete” features, which make it incomparable to other imaging technologies in diagnosing tumors, judging whether there is metastasis or not and evaluating treatment effects. It has become an important tool in cancer diagnosis and treatment.
In addition to being a powerful tool for detecting tumors, PET-CT is also important in making decisions about stenting or bypass treatment for patients with coronary artery disease, and it is also known as the “gold standard” for diagnosing surviving myocardium because it can accurately determine whether there is surviving myocardium in the relevant area and thus predict the postoperative effect. The “gold standard”. In addition, PET-CT is also valuable for the early diagnosis and precise localization of neuropsychiatric diseases such as epilepsy, Alzheimer’s disease, Parkinson’s disease, and depression. With the change of people’s lifestyle and work pressure, many diseases such as tumor and cardiovascular diseases have become younger and many successful people have died young due to tumor and cardiovascular diseases. Regular PET/CT checkups can not only detect tumor lesions in the early stage, but also monitor benign or degenerative diseases, so that the patient can change his lifestyle and receive timely treatment under the guidance of doctors, thus preventing the occurrence and development of some diseases, preventing fires before they start, and truly improving the quality of life. It can prevent the occurrence and development of some diseases and improve the quality of life. Clinical practice proves that PET/CT is a sensitive and accurate method for tumor screening, and it can also detect benign lesions throughout the body and draw up a “health file” of all important organs in the body. PET/CT examination is undoubtedly the best medical examination choice for “sub-healthy” people and people with family history of tumor.
Some people may worry about the safety of PET/CT examinations and whether they will receive too much radiation. In fact, during PET/CT examinations, only a small amount of radioactive imaging agent is injected into the patient, which has a low radiation impact on the human body and decays quickly, disappearing completely from the body within ten minutes to a few hours. Large-scale clinical application proves that the amount of radiation received by patients during a PET/CT examination is low and safe. In addition, PET/CT examinations are non-invasive imaging examinations, and the examination process takes only ten minutes, so its comfort and safety are reliable and excessive concerns are completely unnecessary. There is also a perception that the higher cost of PET/CT exams increases the total cost of care for patients. In fact, the opposite is true, as PET/CT examinations allow for more accurate diagnosis and timely and effective treatment of patients, avoiding many inappropriate tests, misdiagnoses and treatments, resulting in significant overall savings in medical costs. At the same time, it reduces patients’ pain caused by inappropriate treatment and improves quality of life. Domestic and international health economics studies have shown that PET and PET/CT examinations can result in significant savings in medical costs when the costs and benefits of PET and PET/CT examinations are analyzed comprehensively. In the United States and Western Europe, medical insurance agencies have approved PET/CT examinations for dozens of diseases to be covered by medical insurance. It is believed that in the near future, PET/CT examinations for some diseases, especially tumors, will be included in China’s health insurance, so that more people will benefit from PET/CT examinations and PET-CT, the “radar” for detecting life and health, will serve better to protect people’s health.