MRI (Magnetic Resonance Imaging)
Utilizes a strong magnet and radio waves to produce the image, usually to look at soft tissue. Can help diagnose tumours, diseases, irregularities in the spine and soft tissue abnormalities. Especially helpful for examining knees, shoulders, hips elbows and wrists. UHNBC has the province's only MRI unit north of Kamloops.
CT or CAT (Computerized Axial Tomography) scan
Used for vascular studies to find blood clots and to help doctors plan surgery. Live images guide surgeons when taking tissue samples. Effective in imaging of very young patients, whose inability to keep still would blur an X-ray. Provides an alternate means of testing if a colonoscopy is inconclusive. Also helpful in cardiac studies. UHNBC has two CT scanners.
Nuclear Medicine
Patients are given a radioactive tracer, either through injection, swallowing or inhalation, to determine the cause of a medical problem, based on how it affects the function of a specific organ, tissue or bone. The test can detect if a heart is pumping normally or if brain cells are functioning. It can also determine blood volume, kidney and lung function, bone density, vitamin absorption and can detect small bone fractures and tissue lesions. It can also identify sites of seizures, Parkinson's disease and Alzheimer's disease. After the injection, the patient is positioned in front of a gamma-ray detector camera which produces a diagnostic image. The radioactive element involved is designed with a short half-life and decays rapidly so no radiation is left behind in the body. The camera can produce a cross-section of affected areas and three-dimensional images.
X-ray imaging
X-ray machines emit electromagnetic radiation and where body structures are dense, like bone material, and the images are recorded digitally or on film. Bone appears and metal structures appear white in the image, structures that contain air appear black and soft tissues (muscle, fat and fluid) appear gray. Body organs are visible and doctors use X-rays to diagnose a wide variety of diseases. Dyes injected in specific areas make blood vessels visible. X-rays can also be administered through the mouth or bowel to test for gastrointestinal disorders.
X-ray technologists are on the front line in trauma cases involving injuries to the chest, pelvis and neck areas to check for soft tissue damage, bleeding and fractures. They also assist doctors in surgery to help show them where to insert screws in broken femurs, to help guide lasers used to dissolve kidney stones, or to show where to place a pacemaker to cure an irregular heart beat. The technologist also uses a portable X-ray machines to treat babies or people who are too sick to be sent to the radiography lab.
Special procedures technology
An offshoot of X-ray imaging. Technologists perform joint injections, remove body fluids using suction (aspiration) and provide images that help doctors insert catheters into a patient's cardiovascular system. They also help find the target area for angioplasty, a technique in which a tiny balloon is inserted into a blocked artery and inflated to remove plaque or fatty deposits, causing the obstruction and improve blood flow.
