Lightspeed VCT scanner, a new CT technology offers safer scans with less radiation

New technology is bringing relief for patients who have to undergo CT scans.

It exposes them to less radiation and fewer health risks.

That’s good news for 6-year-old Alayna Horowitz.

She’s plagued by sinus problems.

“It was a very chesty smoker’s cough and it was a dry cough but it would take her breath away,“ Traci Marshall-Horowitz, her mother, said.

Her doctor ordered a CT scan.

Alayna’s mom was hesitant.

“One of my concerns with a child so young is they have to be very still and the first time we had the scan, he had to do it three times. The more times they do it, that’s even more radiation she was exposed to,“ Marshall-Horowitz said.

Texas Health Plano’s new Lightspeed VCT scanner, in use in only four hospitals in the world, cuts the radiation levels nearly in half.

“The image quality is just as comparable but we are giving 50 percent less radiation, so that is a huge bonus for us and the image quality is excellent,“ explains radiologist Dr. John Kim.

What are the radiation risks?

“There is risks for tumor formation, cancer risks, especially for radiosensitive body parts. For example, kids are still growing, so all of their cells are still very radiosensitive,“ Dr. Kim said.

The images produced are also clearer and more accurate.

General Electric makes the CT scanner.

They also own NBC.