What are some of the diseases that PET/CT diagnoses?
PET is making critical contributions to effective patient management in four primary medical disciplines: oncology, cardiology, neurology, and psychiatry. Currently, PET/CT is most commonly used in oncology, specifically to diagnose and stage lung cancer, Solitary Pulmonary Nodules, head and neck cancer, colorectal cancer, lymphoma, breast cancer, esophageal cancer, and melanoma because Medicare reimburses only for these oncological studies at the present time. As clinical research continues, more applications are likely to be covered. In Cardiology it is used to determine if the heart muscle is viable prior to surgery. In Neurology it is used differentiate recurrence of brain tumor from scar. It is also used to determine foci of epileptic seizures. In psychiatry it is useful to help differentiate various types of mental disease.
