Darya, a woman with cancer undergoes nuclear imaging exams at the only place available to her, Hôpital Maisonneuve-Rosemont in Montreal.
The device works by injecting a slightly radioactive product, which once in place in the body, provides imaging of the evolution of his disease.
“This device allows us to inject the radioactive product. Cancer, he’s hungry for sugar. So, for us, it’s a synthetic sugar that we inject into patients. These are small doses. We use very little radioactive product,” explains Nancy Michaud, coordinator in the nuclear medicine unit.
The 21-year-old patient must then wait an hour before undergoing her examination. The product injected into his veins must take effect to allow a good reading in three dimensions during the session in the device which lasts 20 minutes.
This allowed the doctor to detect new cancerous masses in another patient.
Every day, 23 patients are admitted here and come from Hôpital Maisonneuve-Rosemont, Santa Cabrini and all the hospitals of the CISSS de la Montérégie-Est.
The device operates every day at full speed and is at the end of its life. It should have been replaced in 2018 but will be soon and will be accompanied by a new nuclear medicine unit. A project which in total is valued at approximately 22 million, and which would not have been possible without the financial participation of 3.4 million from the hospital foundation.