New Mayo Clinic Scanner is First of its Kind in North America

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Rochester, MN (KROC-AM News) - The Mayo Clinic is touting a high-tech upgrade to its imaging capabilities in Rochester.

A news release says the Biograph Vision Quadra PET/CT scanner is the first of its kind to be approved for clinical use in North America. It's described as the most sensitive PET/CT scanner available for clinical use.

Mayo Clinic says the new scanner will "dramatically increase the quality and speed of clinical PET/VT scanning, while at the same time reducing radiation exposure patients." The news release states the new scanner is capable of imaging a patient "from the top of the heads to the legs simultaneously."

"This new scanner is literally an order of magnitude more powerful than our prior best PET/CT scanners, allowing for dramatic improvements in clinical practice while also opening whole new horizons," says Geoffrey Johnson, M.D., Ph.D., chair of the Division of Nuclear Medicine in the Department of Radiology at Mayo Clinic.

The news release says Mayo radiologists expect to improve the staging of cancer, diagnosing infections, along with inflammatory, cardiovascular, and neurologic diseases. The new scanner is expected to be ready for use later this year.