Cork hospital to get €6.8m scanning facility

Planning permission has been granted for a €6.85 million diagnostic and treatment facility at Cork University Hospital which will have scanning devices for more advanced diagnoses of cancer and neurological conditions.

As it stands, patients in Munster have to travel to Dublin to avail of a PET/CT scan unit. The new facility in Cork will include such a scanner, which will enable doctors to determine the precise location of a tumour.

PET/CT works by merging two techniques, each of which records a different part of the body.

PET (positron emission tomography) sees metabolic processes, which is useful for targeting a tumour.

In a PET scan the patient is injected with a small amount of radioactive sugar, which the scanner can see through the body.

Cancer cells, because they grow more rapidly than healthy cells, often consume much of the sugar, allowing the scanner to make precise images of the tumour.

Meanwhile, the computed tomography (CT) unit provides images of selected levels of the body in great detail.

The scans are produced by having the source of the X-ray beam encircle the patient. Sensors detect X-rays passing through the body. Information from these sensors are computer-processed and displayed as an image on a video screen. Any body part can be scanned - slices as thin as 1 millimetre can be obtained - making high-resolution chest and temporal bone-imaging possible.

The equipment can also be used to monitor stroke victims.

A time frame is to be decided soon in relation to the building of the Cork unit.

Cork University Hospital is one of the largest acute hospitals in the country, and is also the main teaching hospital attached to University College Cork. Staff from the hospital provide clinics at other hospital locations within and outside the Cork and Co Kerry area.

It is the only Level One trauma centre for the Republic of Ireland, an accreditation given because of the very wide range of specialities delivered by the hospital.

© 2008 The Irish Times

This article appears in the print edition of the Irish Times