Capital medics lead the way with full body scans

A PIONEERING full body scanner has been used in Edinburgh for the first time in Europe.

City patients have begun benefiting from the gamma camera/CT imaging system, which speeds up diagnosis of conditions.

Two other UK hospitals have taken delivery of the GE Healthcare-developed equipment, but the Western General has been the first to use it.

It allows patients who previously would have needed two separate visits to hospital for scans to be assessed in one brief session, while providing medics with more accurate analysis.

Dr Paul Allan, clinical director of radiology at NHS Lothians, said: "By combining both the gamma camera and the CT systems we are now able to locate areas of disease more quickly and to speed up the whole process, allowing the nuclear medicine team to scan and diagnose a higher number of patients each day."