The radiology department at Avera McKennan Hospital recently made a huge investment to upgrade a piece of equipment that no other facility has in the tri-state region. If you are a patient it's improved your safety and could keep you from going under the knife.

It's called the new Bi-Plane Angiography Suite and it's in the Avera McKennan Radiology Department. It also includes a Dyna CT Scan. An angiogram is a study of the blood vessels which can be seen with the use of X-rays and contrast dye. A CT (Computer Tomography) combines the use of computers and X-rays to obtain specialized images of your brain, organs and tissues. Both are right here, in the same room.

We talked to a Neuro and Interventional Radiologist with the Medical X-Ray Center who rave about Avera McKennan's new Angio Suite.

Neuro Radiologist Dr. Daniel Crosby says, "It allows us to do high resolution imaging of patients. We can see details better of abnormalities within the patient and do the procedure with lower doses because we can do it so rapidly it lowers the amount of contrast we have to inject."

What makes it "Bi-Plane" is there are two different X-ray tubes, taking two different pictures from two different angels with only one contrast dye injection. What makes this unique to the tri-state area is they can convert from an angio gram to a ct scan without moving the patient to a different room.

Interventional Radiologist with the Medical X-Ray Center Dr. Matthew Casey says, "We can gather more information during a study (test) so we can be more effective and more efficient when we do our treatment. With a catheter in a liver artery, for example, I can obtain a CT while injecting that artery so I can see that relationship of the artery to the tumor in a more realistic fashion. "

This is all very complicated stuff, but what it boils down to is the Radiologists can pinpoint exactly where your tumor, aneurysm or internal bleeding, whatever your emergency may be, and treat it with that same pinpoint accuracy. It could save your life on the spot and it could keep you out of the operating room. Avera thinks that is definitely worth the investment.

When you hear the word angiogram, you often think of heart. The Avera Heart Hospital specializes in that, at Avera McKennan they can take care of everything else.The upgrade in the radiology department is part of their commitment to make sure they have the best technology for it's patients.