2005
PET Building

PET Building

In 2005, UAMS opened its $15 million Positron Emission Tomography (PET) facility, which features two Positron Emission Tomography/Computed Tomography (PET/CT) scanners – including the state’s first PET/CT hybrid fusion imaging scanner – and the state’s first medical cyclotron.

The cyclotron provides radioisotopes necessary for PET scanning so Arkansas physicians and hospitals can avoid going out of state to buy those isotopes.

In PET scanning, patients receive a dose of a radioisotope containing substances that mimic those in the body such as water, sugar, proteins and oxygen. The radioisotopes accumulate in diseased cells differently than in healthy cells, so the PET scanner creates an image that can be used to locate and determine the extent of a disease and track its development.

This building, located adjacent to the hospital, added 11,627 square feet to patient care and research.

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