PET scanners

Donations from Trond Mohn and the Trond Mohn Foundation have contributed significantly to the fact that researchers and clinicians in Bergen now have ten years’ experience of PET technology. The newest technology, which combines PET and MRI, will help to reduce radiation doses and will potentially result in fewer and better examinations of cancer patients.

The PET technology makes it possible to take images of the inner organs, and to identify any disease, check what treatment works – and does not work – and thereby develop new, improved treatment techniques. This will directly benefit the patients.

People who are going for a PET scan have a weak radioactive substance injected into their bloodstream, and the radiation from this substance is registered from outside the body. The images that are made in this way show the biological processes in the body. Small animal PET imaging is only used in research, mainly medical research, but PET technology is also useful in the work on finding safer carbon storage solutions.

Professor Kenneth Hugdahl, UiB/Haukeland University Hospital: ‘For the first time, we were able to look inside the brain and see how it works.’