LUTH acquires scanner that detects death in 10 seconds

Lagos University Teaching
Hospital LUTH said they have
acquired a CT scan equipment
that has the capacity to run a
check on all organs of the body,
from head to toe in less than 10
seconds and fish out a patients
death points for immediate
treatment. The machine, called
the 128-slice Aquillon CT
scanner is the first of it's kind in
West Africa.

Speaking on the machine, the
Chief Medical Director, LUTH,
Professor Akin Osibogun told
Nigerian Tribune:

"The Aquillon CT scanner is a
128-scanner and the main
advantage it has over other CT
scanners of earlier generations
is its ability to penetrate deeper
into the tissues and organs to
show clearly the state of those
tissues and organs. Of course
the CT scanner is an imaging
device and because it is able to
provide images of tissues and
organs inside the body. We are
able to see the state in which
those tissues and organs are
and we are able to make
diagnosis that help us to
provide appropriate treatment
for the patients.

"Earlier generations CT scanners
are of course far better in terms
of diagnostic capability than the
x-ray because they provide
clearer definitions than the x-ray
but moving to a 128-slice CT
scanner, in fact, that it is in
terms of where current
knowledge is, with regards to
ability to get clearer images of
tissues and organs that are
internal to the body and
therefore we are able to make
better diagnosis. A further
advantage of the 128-CT
scanner is its speed with which
it works and that means it is
able to capture parts of the
body that are in motion.

"So the Aquillon CT scanner is a
very fast machine, able to pick
items in motion and that
advantage enables us now to
study even the heart as it is
beating and as it is pumping out
blood, so we are able to study
the arteries, the veins as the
blood flow through them, so if
there is a thin blockage or a
blockage is developing, the
scanner is able to pick it."

"So in coronary heart disease
for instance, the scanner is a
vast advantage over other
imaging devices because we are
able to pick them up early and
we can then advise that patient
on dietary changes or whatever
changes that are necessary and
if you have the capability, you
can actually combine it with
what we called interventional
cardiology.

"You can remove small plague
or small particles that are
already forming on the way. It is
just simply by introducing a
catheter, you guide the catheter
under the imaging device and
go to where you want to go and
remove what you want to
remove, without opening the
chest. The CT scanner can be
combined to some extent with
the interventional cardiology
which we would introduce at a
latter point. At this point
because we just acquired the
equipment, we will be using it
largely for diagnostic methods
to pick disease conditions and
do that in a more precise
manner."

Commenting about possible
kidney transplant in Nigeria,
LUTH Chief MD said that the
procedure was possible at the
hospital with just N3 million but
the donor must be a relative of
the patient.

"Maybe if you help us make that
public, that all they need to do, is
to bring a relative who is willing
to donate kidneys to them and
with N3 million, we work them
up, carry out the transplant and
follow them up" he stated