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 Welcome to the PET Imaging Center at Winthrop-University Hospital located at 222
Station Plaza North, Suite 140, Mineola, New York 11501. We are a nuclear medicine
division of the Winthrop-University Hospital Department of Imaging Services. This new
facility was specifically designed to provide a comfortable and pleasant environment with
the newest technology and opened in 2001. Our radiologists, who have received additional
Fellowship training in nuclear medicine in addition to being trained as diagnostic
radiology, are board certified in both fields. They are members of the academic
radiology department at Winthrop-University Hospital, where they are actively involved
in teaching and treating patients. Our caring technologists are licensed and specialty trained.
PET (positron emission tomography) is a revolutionary medical imaging technique using a camera,
which captures powerful images of the human body’s function and reveals information on health and
disease. PET differs dramatically from other imaging techniques. Whereas conventional imaging
techniques such as X-ray, CT, MRI or ultrasound can only show the presence of an abnormal mass,
PET can reveal whether or not it is a benign mass or a cancer. Furthermore PET can detect
diseases earlier when other tests that still appear normal. Whole body imaging with PET provides
a means to examine the entire body in one procedure. PET has proven of value in other types of
diseases as well, such as the pre-surgical evaluations for epilepsy-seizure disorders, early
assessment of dementias such as Alzheimer’s disease and diagnosing and monitoring patients with
stroke and movement disorders. PET may also be used to evaluate cardiac metabolism, perfusion
and viability.
 The remarkable power of PET scans is based on its ability to evaluate the metabolic
function of cells. Cells in the body rely on glucose as an energy source, and typically,
cells of the body that require more fuel (such as actively growing cancer) will metabolize
glucose at a faster rate than other cells. A radioactive form of glucose called fluorodeoyglucose
(FDG) is injected into and distributed throughout the patient’s body. The PET scanner then
tracks and records the signals the FDG emits. A computer then reconstructs the signals into
whole-body images that show areas throughout the body where diseases are present.
Areas that are metabolizing more FDG than others will show up on the resulting images.
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