Diagnostic Imaging
Diagnostic medical care you can trust. Right here where you live.
Seeing more than meets the eye is the goal of imaging services at Medical Center Enterprise (MCE). Whether it’s an ultrasound, X-ray or mammogram, taking a picture of what’s happening inside your body can help physicians reach the proper diagnosis and prescribe the appropriate treatment.
With care and compassion, the medical staff of our imaging services delivers comprehensive diagnostic testing and screening services with these tools:
- Magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) uses a magnetic field and radio waves to create cross-sectional images of your head, body, muscles and blood flow. MCE ensures area patients receive advanced medical technology, close to home. In 2009 MCE installed a brand new GE MRI scanner.
- Computed tomography (CT) scans create detailed images of your body’s internal organs using X-rays with computer technology. The doughnut-shaped scanner uses radiation to create cross-sectional images, or “slices,” that help physicians detect tumors, heart disease or internal injuries or bleeding. A CT scan may require that you not eat or drink if you have to drink a contrast liquid— which helps healthcare providers see body structures more clearly—or have a contrast dye injected before the test. The exam usually lasts less than an hour, including any preparations, though the actual scan may only last a minute or two. MCE uses a Toshiba 16-slice CT scanner.
- Ultrasound uses high-frequency sound waves to evaluate organs in the body and commonly to examine fetal development. Detailed images are returned in real time, making ultrasound particularly helpful for guiding minimally invasive procedures—such as needle biopsies—and for visualizing organ, blood vessel and tissue movement. MCE offers both 3D and 4D ultrasound imaging.
- Nuclear medicine uses tiny amounts of radioactive materials to perform heart studies and diagnose bone cancer, bone infections and stress fractures. The radioactive materials are introduced into the patient’s body by injection, swallowing or inhalation. Special cameras that work with computers detect the radioactive materials to provide sharp images of the body.
- X-rays view bones and help physicians examine the chest. The X-ray system at MCE helps physicians perform both radiography and fluoroscopy procedures and allows them to confidently diagnose conditions in the chest, spine, bone, digestive tract, uterus and bladder. With the added benefit of fluoroscopy capability, MCE offers physicians the ability to study flow or motion in patients when necessary. Similar to an X-ray “movie,” fluoroscopy can include imaging of dynamic processes such as throat abnormalities.
- Mammography, a special X-ray of the breasts, can detect lumps and other forms of breast disease that may be too small to be felt even by an experienced examiner. Early detection affords the best opportunity for a cure. Being one of the first hospitals in the Wiregrass region to offer Breast MRI is just one example of MCE’s advanced technology right here at home. In addition, MCE is pleased to now offer Digital Mammography for the community.
- Bone Densitometry is a noninvasive procedure used to measure bone mass and helps to diagnose osteoporosis.
If you need an X-ray, CT scan, ultrasound, MRI, nuclear medicine test or mammogram, you can feel confident in MCE’s technology and the experienced team. Our radiologists are board-certified and have specialty training in neuro-imaging, body and breast imaging, and even nuclear medicine. MCE is dedicated to providing the right care, right away.