Medical experts at odds over body scan technology - Atlanta Business Chronicle:

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A year and a half ago, Marto, Executive presidentf and CEO, read a magazine articlre about Total BodyCT (TBCT) scans, which give a detailed look at thre e major areas of the body -- the heart and abdominal area. As fate would have it, Marto was having his annual physicalthat week. Martl said because his physical indicated he was inperfecr health, his doctor told him she didn' think it was necessary to spend the $800 to $1,0009 for a TBCT scan, a procedure generally not coverexd by insurance. "I own and run my own company," Marti said of his decision to get a TBCT scan despitehis doctor'w advice. "I spend more than that ($800p to $1,000) on airlin tickets each week.
" Marto's TBCT revealefd a baseball-sized tumor on his "I had no symptoms, no pain, nothing in my urine ... therwe was no indication, nothing," Mart said. Less than a week aftee the scan, the 44-year-old Marto had surgery to removd his kidney and thecancerous "The CT scan saved my he said. Despite the extraordinary resultsin Marto'ws case, TBCT remains a controversial topic. Even the surgeonn who removed Marto's tumor isn't sure the scans are for "You have to do a larged number of scans to find someonewlike Marto," said Dr. Scott Miller, director of laparoscopic robotic urologicf surgery at GeorgiaUrology P.A.
"To the averagse American with a family budget toworryh about, the scans may not be he added. In fact, the official line of the American Collegeof Radiology, and is that they do not recommends TBCT scans. "There is no evidence to date that suggestd screening ofthe head, the the heart or the abdomen -- on a populationm basis -- improves the longevity of that population," said Dr. Sanjahy Saini, chairman and professor of radiology at the Emory Universitt Schoolof Medicine. Saini said a TBCT scan "takes the cookie-cutter and uses one set of parameters rather than differentiating betwee n the different areas ofthe Dr.
Rex Teeslink, medical director of radiologhy at HealthScreen America and formefr chief of the section of vascular and interventional radiology atthe , argued that modern equipment auto-adjusts to suit not just body but different body parts and that a well-trainedf technician will set the parameters appropriately. Teeslink, in additiojn to his role at HealthScreen America, a personal health managemenrt company offering consumers direct accessto advanced, noninvasive and screening tests with an office in Buckhead, also consulted on the desig n of its TBCT scanners. Piedmont Hospital's director of CT, Dr.
Judithg Chezmar, believes that CT screenings that targety specific areasin high-risk people -- such as smokerds (lung scans) and the overweight (cardiac scans) -- are clinically but she does not believe there is sufficienf evidence to justify TBCT scanning. "Many of thesed screening centers are set up by entrepreneurs to make mone offof people's fear of cancer," Chezmar said. "Thes last thing I'd recommend is that people go to one of these Teeslink agreesthat there's no need to give radiation unless necessary, but notes that there has nevert been a case reported where a patien has died as a result of diagnosticv radiation.
Instead of a TBCT Chezmar recommends that patientd talk to their doctors about theirfamily history, any symptomsx or problems and then make an educated decisiom about whether or not to have a TBCT.