Digital imaging reduces exposure to harmful rays

Patients at Yuma Regional Medical Center can now benefit from technology that shortens examination time and decreases exposure to harmful X-rays, says Eldon Dyer, director of diagnostic imaging at YRMC.

Marco Salmeron, dayshift lead technician at YRMC, says the new grid pulse fluoroscopy machine the hospital has acquired is one of 10 such digital imaging machines being used throughout the United States.

"We have the worldwide best technology here in Yuma," says Salmeron.

According to Salmeron, grid pulse fluoroscopy allows a technician to record real time images of physiology rather than restricting images to stills of a patient's anatomy. He says that while the machine is similar to older X-ray machines in principle, the process by which images are captured differs.

According to Dyer, grid pulse fluoroscopy ensures that technicians can access images three to five seconds after they are taken. He compared this to the 90 seconds it would take with a slightly older X-ray machine.

He says images are produced faster because technicians don't have to manually transfer data from the machine to a reading device.

While this does not necessarily lead to a quicker diagnosis, it does ensure that "patients are sent back to their rooms or houses quicker," says Dyer.

To illustrate, Lena Haygood, an imaging based educator, says that a complete bone survey in which all a patient's bones are examined and photographed by X-ray would typically take 30 to 45 minutes on an old machine. Now, she says, it can take 20 minutes with an easy patient on the grid pulse fluoroscopy machine.

She also says that grid pulse fluoroscopy helps decrease the patient's dose of harmful rays by 80 to 90 percent. For children and newborns who are particularly sensitive to radiation, the decrease in exposure can be as high as 97 percent, she says.

The addition of this machine will also ensure that aspiring medical technicians and students receive training on a variety of machines, says Salmeron. In particular, he says, Arizona Western College "is getting a lot of benefits out of this."

Dyer says that other benefits for technicians include higher-quality images, convenient touch screen monitors and easily referenced thumbnail images.

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Erin Orozco can be reached at eorozco@yumasun.com or 539-6849.