The Jawaharlal Institute of Post Graduate Medical Education and Research (Jipmer) is establishing PET CT facility for the benefit of poor patients.
The Department of Nuclear Medicine is upgrading with PET-CT “Discovery MI digital ready PET-CT” model facility near the Regional Cancer Center (RCC) at Jipmer. The Standing Finance Committee of Jipmer has approved ₹23 crore for this project, including equipment and construction work. Jipmer has already placed and order for purchasing the PET-CT machine. The PET-CT will function in an exclusive building.
Jipmer Director Dr. S.C. Parija on Monday laid the foundation stone for the building. HLL Life Care Limited will be doing the project in an area of 700 sq.m.
Dr. J. Balachander, Medical Superintendent, S.N.Sathu, CEO Hites, faculty and staff were present during the occasion.
According to Jipmer, this is the first state-of-the-art equipment going to be installed in the government institute in south India, catering to the poor patients. PET-CT provides the metabolic information of the cancer cells unlike the conventional CT scan and it helps in accurately planning the management of cancer patients.
Improved diagnosis
With the help of whole body PET-CT, the extent of cancer spread, earliest response to the chemo radiation treatment and cancer recurrence in its earlier stage can be diagnosed accurately.
Apart from cancer, PET-CT also helps in the diagnosis of some degenerative neurological disease, heart diseases and infective foci.
The cost for taking PET CT is about ₹25,000 in private medical institutions whereas the same would be made available at Jipmer at a nominal rate, a press statement said.