The equipment for Positron Emission Tomography is added from a political decision of the Pampas Government, together with the private subsector, to expand the possibility of care in complete nuclear medicine studies within the Pampas territory.
For seven months, a Positron Emission Tomography (PET/CT) equipment has been installed to carry out studies mainly on cancer patients, who were previously referred to the provinces of Buenos Aires or Córdoba.
The Undersecretary of Health, Gustavo Vera, highlighted the importance of having this technology and avoiding transfers that involved movements of up to three days.
“In the case of non-contributing patients, who were paid by the province, they had to move to Casa de La Pampa, add the stay and carry out the studies; that in a population in a state of vulnerability due to the pathology it has, it was a difficult situation to navigate, ”he acknowledged. “Being in Santa Rosa, installed in the Megan company, enables avoiding referrals,” he added.
The official explained that this equipment is state-of-the-art, it uses small amounts of radioactive materials called radiopharmaceuticals, a special camera and a computer, to evaluate the functions of tissues and organs.
“It fills us with pride, as people from the Pampas, because many large places, such as Bahía Blanca, do not have this equipment. Here, every patient who has a medical indication will be treated in a timely manner. In the case of patients who do not have a social work, the State will take care of it, as it always was. And those who do have it, it will be their own social work that finances it. In both cases, before it involved traveling to other centers; It is a great advance, a private service with the support of the State”, added the official.
“TRAINED PERSONNEL”
For her part, Graciela Melado, a specialist in nuclear medicine at the Megan Medical Center, explained that it is a hybrid team called PET/CT made up of a PET (Positron Emission Tomography) and a Multislice Tomograph.
“There are two components: one provides metabolic information by injecting the patient with a radiopharmaceutical, which allows functional metabolic information to be obtained, and morphological information is obtained with tomography; then both images are merged, obtaining metabolic and morphological information with the two studies”.
The project to have this equipment began years ago, for which the facilities had to be adapted and following the purchase today many derivations are avoided.
“In addition to the equipment, trained people are required, not only in the medical part but also in the technical part. In medicine, the training is both that of a specialist in nuclear medicine and that of a tomographer, and the technicians who usually, in addition to their training in general nuclear medicine, are trained to do PET, some have imaging degrees who are trained in both “, large.
The medical professional said that the most used radioactive material suffers an early decay every 110 minutes, for which a whole logistics is established for the transfer from Buenos Aires (by land). “There is a whole team within the institution, governed by the nuclear regulatory authority, to be able to work with the corresponding authorizations,” she indicated.
Since it began to function, the proposal to have the service was sent to all social works, adding to the provincial government.
“We are working with the Government, union, private and PAMI social works, this allows a province with low population density to have the most advanced technology, already in 2008 we brought another hybrid equipment for general nuclear medicine, SPECT/CT that consists of a gamma camera SPECT and a multislice tomograph. This works with other radioactive materials and was, at the time, the second team that entered the country, the first from the interior of the country, and then we had to enter this additional team, to provide the complete service that it does to nuclear medicine ” , he concluded.
