Difference Between Pet Scan and CT Scan

Millions of people undergo imaging tests every year. Innovations in diagnostic imaging like CT Scan, PET Scan, and MRI have significantly improved the ability to diagnose cancer, track its progression in the human body and assess the efficacy of treatment. This painless, non-invasive method aids the physician to understand the complications in the human body and enables them to make better decisions. The procedures provide a window to the body’s anatomical structures without the need for an incision.

About CT Scan

Over the last decade, CT scan has been increasingly used for the early detection of cancers and to determine the shape, size, and location of the tumor. CT scan is a state-of-the-art imaging technique that provides the image of your bones, organs, and soft tissues in a transverse anatomical plane.

CT scan uses X-rays to take a series of pictures from different angles and combines them to create a single, With advanced technology, the current scanner has the power to produce a 3D or contrast image of an object inside the body. The technology uses 3D imaging modalities to provide enriched images for viewing and inspecting internal body structures.

When a CT scan is executed along with a PET Scan as a part of the same diagnostic workup, it is termed PET-CT fusion imaging. It uniquely combines the functional information from the PET CT with anatomical information obtained from the CT. Fusion imaging with a CT scan thus helps to localize the functional abnormality and also characterize the lesion based on biochemical changes at the molecular level. These combined features increase the sensitivity, specificity, and overall diagnostic accuracy when compared with PET and CT alone.

Benefits of PET Scan over CT scan

• The combination of modalities provides a level of diagnostic superiority over the two scans performed separately
• Combined scans allow clinicians to achieve double clarity in diagnosis
• Detects cancer at an early stage before it is visible with other imaging tools
• Conveniently reduce the number of scanning sessions that a patient must endure
• Painless procedure that evaluates both anatomical and metabolic function
• Excellent diagnostic procedure to differentiate recurrent disease from post-treatment changes