Diagnostic Imaging
Services
Yuma District Hospital is proud to offer state-of-the-art diagnostic Imaging Services. We strive to meet every patient and provider’s needs in diagnostic imaging and image-guided treatments, so our patients do not have to travel outside of the area. The Diagnostic Imaging Services support Yuma District Hospital and Clinic’s mission statement by being dedicated to enhancing the health of all whom we serve and providing care that exceeds industry quality standards.
Imaging services we provide include:
- Diagnostic Digital X-ray
- Computed Tomography (CT Scan)
- MRI
- Ultrasound-Including Mobile Echocardiogram
- 3D Mammography
- Bone Density Scanning
- Nuclear Medicine (Mobile Unit)
For general X-rays, you
Our team, majority of which grew up in the area, are all qualified in numerous modalities! This is why you may have a different technologist each time you visit our department. If you visit us for X-rays, CT’s, or Bone Density Scans, you may meet Abby, Emily, Megan, or Lillie, all registered with the American Registry of Radiologic Technologists (ARRT). You will meet Rafael for your Ultrasound needs, as he is registered with the American Registry for Diagnostic Medical Sonographers (ARDMS) and a Registered Vascular Technologist (RVT). If you are coming in for any Mammography Exams, Lillie or Emily will provide your care. You will be greeted by Megan, Abby, or Lillie if you are scheduled for any MRI’s. Tony is our mobile Echocardiogram Technologist and Brooke and Anthony are our mobile Nuclear Medicine Technologists, all happy to provide their services to YDH!
If you need to schedule a Diagnostic Imaging exam or have any questions, our direct phone number is 970-848-4642. Please fax orders to 970-848-3144.
Yuma District Hospital provides a full range of diagnostic x-ray procedures utilizing state of the art Digital technology to provide detailed images to assist the Radiology team in detecting changes in body tissues, bone injuries or organ abnormalities.
Portable fluoroscopy and x-ray equipment are used during surgical procedures and is available for use in Yuma’s Emergency and Surgery Departments. Diagnostic Radiology employs general imaging techniques for both inpatients and outpatients. Digital Radiography uses much less radiation compared to conventional and CR Radiography and is less time consuming. When using x-ray, a part of the body is exposed to a small amount of radiation to produce an image of the anatomy of interest. The common use of routine x-ray imaging is to diagnose injury to the bone, bone diseases and infections, and osteoarthritis. X-ray imaging is also useful to view internal organs. Procedures can take from just a few minutes to several hours and include initial screenings as well as sophisticated and complex procedures. Diagnostic Radiographs or digital fluoroscopy can also be used to view the gastrointestinal or genitourinary organs. Digital fluoroscopy is an imaging technique which uses x-rays and a fluorescent screen to obtain moving, real-time images of the internal structures of the body. These moving images are shown on a T.V. like screen. Fluoroscopy is commonly used to study movement inside the body, such as the function of the stomach and intestines and is also used for special diagnostic studies and pain injections of the spine and joints.
Digital Radiography
(X-ray)
Computed Tomography
(CT) Scan
A CT (computed tomography) scan is a noninvasive medical test which combines the diagnostic capability of x-ray with modern computer technology to create multiple detailed images of inside the body. The computer joins the images together to produce cross-sectional views of the area being studied. CT scanning is commonly used to diagnose problems such as cancers, cardiovascular disease, infectious disease, trauma, and musculoskeletal disorders.
Yuma District Hospital has a Toshiba Aquilion 80 slice scanner. This top-of-the-line CT scanner allows physicians to simultaneously capture multiple millimeter-thin images of a patient’s anatomy within seconds. The system provides exceptionally high-resolution images that help doctors to diagnose patients more accurately. Our scanner is equipped with radiation reduction technology to reduce your radiation exposure by 70 percent while providing a fast, safe, and reliable diagnostic tool for your provider.
Other benefits for the patient include: less time needed for breath-holds; greater flexibility (e.g., obtain thinner or thicker slices without rescanning the patient); and better cross sectional displays and 3D images. In addition, the scanner allows radiologists to use CT for new applications, such as CT angiography, cardiology, and guided pain injections.
CT Exam Preps:
Exam With IV Contrast-(Chest/Thorax, Abdomen, Pelvis)
- Are you diabetic?
- Do you have a history of kidney disease?
If yes to either of these questions, you will need lab work down PRIOR
to your CT exam.
Exam with Oral Contrast
-The Diagnostic Imaging Department will provide you with the Oral Contrast and detailed instructions.
Yuma’s CT staff is credentialed by the American Registry of Radiologic Technologists and is CT scan registered.
The Yuma Radiology Department provides a full spectrum of patient imaging using traditional MRI equipment. MRI scans are offered for both inpatient and outpatients five-days-a-week.
Magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) is a valuable diagnostic test that allows radiologists to see areas of the body which cannot be seen using conventional x-rays. MRI does not use x-ray radiation. Instead, a computer creates detailed cross-sectional tissue “slice” images from data generated by a powerful magnetic field and radio waves. The computer creates 3-D images that can be viewed from any angle.
Because certain medical devices can be affected by the magnet, patients with pacemakers, defibrillators, other implanted devices, or any injury where metal may be in your body are excluded from undergoing MRI exams. However, joint replacements, spinal fusions, orthopedic screws and plates, and/or surgical clips are all safe for MRI.
MRI is used extensively to diagnose injuries and conditions related to the brain, neck, spinal cord, and soft tissues. It is also especially useful for evaluating medical conditions involving joints, muscles, and bones.
MRI technology is also capable of imaging flowing blood in virtually any part of the body. This allows technicians to perform studies that show the arterial system in the body, but not the surrounding tissue. In many cases, the MRI system can do this without a contrast injection, as is required in vascular radiology. To enhance certain other types of diagnostic studies, however, a contrast medium may be injected into a vein.
During your exam, which may take 20 minutes to an hour, you lie on a movable table inside the scanner. Because the scanner makes loud knocking noises while it takes pictures, you will be given earplugs or headphones with music to reduce the loud sounds. Patients utilizing the traditional MRI scanner sometimes experience claustrophobia. Medications are available to help. If you are wearing anything metallic, such as jewelry, dentures, eyeglasses, or hearing aids that might interfere with the MRI scan, we will ask you to remove them.
MRI Preps:
For any MRI Exam, please wear metal free clothing, leave jewelry, hear pins, and all other metal at home. It is unsafe for any removable metal to go into the MRI suite.
Abdomen Exam:
- Please do not eat or drink anything after midnight before your exam.
All of Yuma’s MRI technologists are credentialed by the American Registry of Radiologic Technologists.
Magnetic Resonance Imaging
(MRI)
Ultrasound
Yuma District Hospital is proud to provide top of the line Ultrasound equipment. An Ultrasound exam, or sonogram, uses no radiation. With the aid of a computer, ultrasound uses high-frequency sound waves to create diagnostic images.
Ultrasound exams are safe and generally non-invasive procedures. During the exam, a transducer that emits inaudible sound waves is placed on your body. The sound waves are reflected back to the transducer (like sonar) and are translated into a moving image by a computer. This technology makes it possible to view the movement of internal organs in motion, such as a fetus during pregnancy or the flow of blood through a blood vessel.
Ultrasound is especially useful for providing information about abdominal organs such as the kidneys, liver, pancreas and gallbladder, as well as the breasts, uterus, ovaries, prostate and thyroid gland. It is also used to view heart wall/valve motion and blood flow to look for narrowing of blood vessels to screen for stroke risk, and look for enlarged arteries to diagnose an aneurysm. Ultrasound is an excellent way to look for blood clots in the veins/arteries of the legs or arms.
Ultrasound is a quick and relatively inexpensive procedure. We work with a highly trained ultrasound technologist who is credentialed, which means they have special ultrasound training and have passed a national examination.
Echocardiograms
An echocardiogram is an ultrasound examination of how the heart valves and muscle walls are working. If the cardiologist needs additional information, an echo stress test may be ordered. This would include an ultrasound examination of the heart at rest, then a treadmill stress test, followed by a stress ultrasound of the heart. YDH offers Echocardiograms on Mondays.
Preps for Ultrasound:
Abdominal exams-
No food or water after midnight before exam.
A light evening meal is suggested with no carbonated beverages. A light evening meal means: No gassy foods like beans, broccoli, brussel sprouts.
Renal exams-
No food or water after midnight before exam.
A light evening meal is suggested with no carbonated beverages. A light evening meal means: No gassy foods like beans, broccoli, brussel sprouts.
OB exams-
FINISH drinking 32 ounces of water only, no coffee, etc.
DO NOT USE RESTROOM BEFORE EXAM.
It is very important that the bladder is full for this exam.
Pelvic exams-
DRINK 32 OUNCES OF FLUID/WATER ONE HOUR PRIOR TO EXAM.
DO NOT USE RESTROOM BEFORE EXAM.
It is very important that the bladder is full for this exam.
3D Mammography
YDH is thrilled to be one of the first facilities to have this top-of-the-line technology and equipment in Northeastern Colorado, installed October 2018! 3D Mammography, also known as Digital Breast Tomography, is a revolutionary new screening and diagnostic breast imaging tool to improve the early detection of breast cancer in men and women. Studies have shown when combining 3D Mammography with conventional 2D Mammography, there has been an up to 40% increase in overall breast cancer detection over 2D Mammography alone.
How does 3D Mammography work? The machine sweeps over the compressed breast to acquire multiple images in seconds. Those images are then displayed in thin slices for a Radiologist to view. Traditional digital mammography, like YDH has had since 2011, takes 2D pictures of the breast and is still one of the most advanced tools available for detecting breast abnormalities. But rather than viewing the breast tissue in 2D images, our radiologists can examine the tissue one thin layer at a time, in a sense traveling through the structure of the breast like flipping pages of a book. Fine details are more visible and are less likely to be hidden by overlapping breast tissue.
This new technology will become our new standard of care for both screening and diagnostic mammograms. Patients 40 and older do not need a written order from your health care provider. If patients are experiencing any symptoms or problems in their breasts, a written order for a diagnostic mammogram is required.
Emily McGrath and Lillie Oss, both certified in Mammography with the American Registry of Radiologic Technologists, are happy to provide you with the best care and the greatest technology on the Northeastern Plains!
Consult your provider if you have any questions.
To schedule your 3D mammogram, call 970-848-4642.
Bone Density (DXA)
Yuma District Hospital provides an in-house Bone Densitometry Scanner available five days a week. A Bone Density, or DXA scan uses X-rays to measure how many grams of calcium and other bone minerals are packed into a segment of bone. The test measures a specific bone, or bones, usually the spine, hip, and/or wrist. It calculates the density of the bones and is compared with an average index based on age, sex, and size. The resulting comparison is used to determine risk for fractures as well as the stage of osteoporosis in an individual.
DXA scans are quick (15-20 minutes) and easy. The patient lies still on a table as the X-ray tube moves across their body, scanning specific bones.
If you have not had a DXA scan, ask your doctor if you would be a candidate for the exam. A doctor’s order is needed for this exam.
The National Osteoporosis Foundation indications for a DXA Scan:
- Women age 65 and older and men age 70 and older, regardless of risk factors.
- Younger postmenopausal women and men age 50 to 69 about whom there is concern based on their clinical risk factor profile.
- Women in the menopausal transition if there is a risk factor associated with increased fracture risk such as low body weight, prior low-trauma fracture or high-risk medication
- Adults who have a fracture after age 50.
- Adults with a condition (e.g., rheumatoid arthritis) or taking a medication (e.g., glucocorticoids in a daily dose ≥ 5 mg prednisone or equivalent for ≥ 3 months) associated with low bone mass or bone loss.
- Anyone being considered for pharmacologic therapy for osteoporosis.
- Anyone being treated for osteoporosis, to monitor treatment effect.
- Anyone not receiving therapy in whom evidence of bone loss would lead to treatment.
- Postmenopausal women discontinuing estrogen.