Jenkintown-based Adler Institute for Advanced Imaging has become the fifth site of its kind to add a machine known as a superconducting cyclotron to its existing cardiac PET/CT imaging services, writes John George for the Philadelphia Business Journal.

The roughly $3 million device, which is one of the latest advancements in outpatient cardiac imaging, makes N-13 ammonia, a radiopharmaceutical that is used with positron emission tomography of the heart to find coronary artery disease.

Cyclotrons are usually too large for most sites, but advances in miniaturization and technology have now made it possible for them to be installed at outpatient imaging centers. Once a cyclotron is in place, these centers are able to use short-life imaging agents that cannot be shipped.

The availability of smaller devices improves the diagnoses process drastically.

“The advantages of this procedure [using N-13 ammonia] to a patient are that it reduces radiation exposure, cuts down on the number of tests necessary for accurate diagnosis and takes dramatically less time than other traditional diagnostic procedures,” said Dr. Lee P. Adler, the founder and medical director of the Adler Institute.

The Adler Institute for Advanced Imaging is located at The Pavilion at 261 Old York Road, in Jenkintown.

Read more about the Adler Institute in the Philadelphia Business Journal.