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American Morning
House Call: Digital X-Ray
Aired June 18, 2003 - 07:50 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
BILL HEMMER, CNN ANCHOR: A new digital x-ray system produces a full body scan in 13 seconds. It could mean the difference in many cases between life and death for trauma patients, and that's where our medical correspondent, Dr. Sanjay Gupta, checks in today on our morning "House Call."
Good to see you, Sanjay.
DR. SANJAY GUPTA, CNN MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT: Good morning.
This is a pretty interesting thing. You know, they talk about the golden hour in medicine, trying to get as many procedures and as many x-rays, as many things you can get done within that golden hour. That translates into increased lives saved.
This particular scanning device, as you mentioned, 13 seconds to do full body scans, x-rays from head to toe. Let's get a little bit of an idea of how this thing works.
Basically a patient is rolled into this machine you see there. It looks like a "C." It's a big "C" x-ray machine. And it basically scans the entire body. It takes about 13 seconds. It's doing it right there. That's the scan taking place, x-rays going over the entire body head to toe. Eight seconds later, those films are available for the doctors to review.
Just to give you a sense of reference here. There are the x-rays there. Take a look. This person had some significant injuries. The pelvis is dislocated. You can see the broken bone on the left, another broken bone on the right. Those are both the femurs. This is a car accident patient.
Bill, all of these patients that come in after a car accident, they're unconscious. You have no idea what their injuries are. You need to put them through something like this, because they can't tell you where it hurts.
HEMMER: Yes, you're in a trauma center down in Atlanta about once a month at Grady Hospital (ph). They see some very vicious cases down there. Could you use something like this immediately?
GUPTA: Yes, absolutely. I think this sort of thing is probably here to stay. It's been used for the first time this past weekend at the Shock Trauma Center at the University of Maryland.
Here is an interesting anecdote about it as well. It was developed actually in Cape Town, South Africa. They actually use it to search the miners for possibly having stolen any diamonds.
HEMMER: Is that right?
GUPTA: Yes. It uses 75 percent less radiation as well. You saw that patient there. He didn't have an apron on.
HEMMER: That's amazing. Less radiation, less money and less time. What's the problem here?
GUPTA: I think it's here to stay. I really do. It's expensive, about $400,000 for one of these machines, not cheap, but I think hospitals are probably going to find that well worth their investment.
HEMMER: Good to see you.
TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com.
Aired June 18, 2003 - 07:50 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
BILL HEMMER, CNN ANCHOR: A new digital x-ray system produces a full body scan in 13 seconds. It could mean the difference in many cases between life and death for trauma patients, and that's where our medical correspondent, Dr. Sanjay Gupta, checks in today on our morning "House Call."
Good to see you, Sanjay.
DR. SANJAY GUPTA, CNN MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT: Good morning.
This is a pretty interesting thing. You know, they talk about the golden hour in medicine, trying to get as many procedures and as many x-rays, as many things you can get done within that golden hour. That translates into increased lives saved.
This particular scanning device, as you mentioned, 13 seconds to do full body scans, x-rays from head to toe. Let's get a little bit of an idea of how this thing works.
Basically a patient is rolled into this machine you see there. It looks like a "C." It's a big "C" x-ray machine. And it basically scans the entire body. It takes about 13 seconds. It's doing it right there. That's the scan taking place, x-rays going over the entire body head to toe. Eight seconds later, those films are available for the doctors to review.
Just to give you a sense of reference here. There are the x-rays there. Take a look. This person had some significant injuries. The pelvis is dislocated. You can see the broken bone on the left, another broken bone on the right. Those are both the femurs. This is a car accident patient.
Bill, all of these patients that come in after a car accident, they're unconscious. You have no idea what their injuries are. You need to put them through something like this, because they can't tell you where it hurts.
HEMMER: Yes, you're in a trauma center down in Atlanta about once a month at Grady Hospital (ph). They see some very vicious cases down there. Could you use something like this immediately?
GUPTA: Yes, absolutely. I think this sort of thing is probably here to stay. It's been used for the first time this past weekend at the Shock Trauma Center at the University of Maryland.
Here is an interesting anecdote about it as well. It was developed actually in Cape Town, South Africa. They actually use it to search the miners for possibly having stolen any diamonds.
HEMMER: Is that right?
GUPTA: Yes. It uses 75 percent less radiation as well. You saw that patient there. He didn't have an apron on.
HEMMER: That's amazing. Less radiation, less money and less time. What's the problem here?
GUPTA: I think it's here to stay. I really do. It's expensive, about $400,000 for one of these machines, not cheap, but I think hospitals are probably going to find that well worth their investment.
HEMMER: Good to see you.
TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com.
