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CT or computed tomography is used in a variety of different medical treatment, primarily radiology. It is also used in non-medical fields including oceanography, archaeology, and geophysics. CT is an excellent tool for finding cancers and other growths because of its ability to produce axial images within the body. Doctors are then able to diagnose problems, schedule biopsies, surgeries and other medical procedures. Over recent decades, CTs have become much more common, and since the CT technology has been changing rapidly the number of used CT systems in the secondary market has increased tremendously. There are several manufactures of tomography equipment, so finding refurbished or used CT equipment is easier than ever. Many high-end, state of the art facilities trade out CT equipment every few years so that they can offer the cutting edge technology that their patients are willing to pay for. Many facilities are willing to purchase older model CT equipment, which is where Chicago Medical Exchange comes in. Refurbished or used PET CT and CT equipment is much less expensive than a brand new model, while providing the same data for diagnosing. PET-CT has revolutionized many fields of medical diagnosis, by adding precision of anatomic localization to functional imaging, which was previously lacking from pure PET imaging. For example, in oncology, surgical planning, radiation therapy and cancer staging have been changing rapidly under the influence of PET-CT availability, to the extent that many diagnostic imaging procedures and centers have been gradually abandoning conventional PET devices and substituting them by PET-CTs. Although the combined/hybrid device is considerably more expensive, it has the advantage of providing both functions as stand-alone examinations, being, in fact, two devices in one. The only other obstacle to a wider dissemination of PET-CT is the difficulty and cost of producing and transporting the radiopharmaceuticals used for PET imaging, which are usually extremely short-lived (for instance, the half life of radioactive fluorine18 used to trace glucose metabolism (using fluorodeoxyglucose, FDG) is two hours only. Its production requires a very expensive cyclotron as well as a production line for the radiopharmaceuticals.
