MRI

Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI) is a non-invasive, radiation-free scanning technology using radiofrequency waves and magnetic fields to produce clear, detailed 3D images of nearly any organ, hard or soft tissues in your body.
MRI can identify or precisely locate an injury, previous trauma or abnormality such as tumors, infections, and cancer; damage to your eye and inner ear, nervous system, heart and blood vessels; joint and musculoskeletal systems; chest, abdomen and pelvic areas; major organs; male and female reproductive system.

MR Angiography (MRA) and MR Venography (MRV) study the blood flow in arteries and veins, respectively.

Toll Gate Radiology utilizes more open units with a “short bore” that only partially enclose patients to let you feel more comfortable and alleviate claustrophobia, yet still enable us to obtain high-resolution images.

Prior to MRI Procedures

• You may also be asked not to eat or drink for several hours before the test.
• During your MRI procedure, you may be asked to swallow or be injected with a contrast material to provide a clearer view of the targeted organs.
• Patients with an implanted defibrillator or cochlear implant should not undergo MRIs.
• Follow the directions provided by our appointment schedulers for each MRI procedure.

CT

Better known as a “Cat Scan”, computed tomography (CT), combines low-dose x-rays with computer technology to obtain images of almost any part of your body for examining injuries and abnormalities, guiding needle biopsies, and aiding in surgical preparation.

CT scanning is an invaluable tool in the early detection of lung cancer because of its abilities to detect the smallest tumors, potentially before the patient notices any symptoms. Therefore, this painless diagnostic imaging tool may save your life.

Toll Gate Radiology also uses CT scanners for these three advanced applications:

• CT Angiography – An accurate picture of blood flow through the vessels of the head, neck, chest, abdomen, pelvis and extremities.
• 3-Dimensional Imaging – A clear 3-D view of bone structure, assessing degenerative or traumatic alterations.
• Calcium Scoring – A statistical estimate of your risk for having a heart attack.

During a CT scan:

• The patient is positioned on a table on his or her back, side or stomach, and may be provided with pillows for comfortable support.
• The table moves very slowly through the large doughnut-shaped CT scanner.
• The X-ray beam inside the CT unit spirals slowly around the patient on all sides, creating 360-degree images or “slices” of the area being examined.
• As the patient moves through the unit, many slices are captured.
• The images are then combined to produce a highly detailed, three-dimensional digital image on areas as small as 1/100th of an inch.

Ultrasound

Ultrasound imaging, also known as sonography, is a procedure at Toll Gate Radiology in which a water-soluble gel is placed on the area to be visualized. Most patients think of ultrasound during pregnancy, but this diagnostic imaging tool has a wide range of uses.
Ultrasound uses high frequency sound waves that pass into the body and sends echoes back to produce images of your internal structures with no radiation exposure. Ultrasounds can also show internal motion such as blood flowing through the veins and a beating heart.
Toll Gate Radiology incorporates the use of various multi-frequency transducers, with Doppler and color flow that allows us to perform ultrasound exams on all areas of the body.

Because our sonographers have over 20 years of experience, Toll Gate Radiology can ensure that you will have the best possible ultrasound exam obtainable.

X-ray

X-rays have been used for decades and are still the most common imaging study ordered today. Toll Gate Radiology uses equipment that produces digital diagnostic images of your body that let your doctors view and assess broken bones, sports injuries, and possibly early forms of bone cancer.

Toll Gate Radiology offers walk-in service for all general x-ray exams – no preparation or appointments are needed.

Arthrography

If your doctor should recommend an MRI for your shoulder, there are two potential types of MRI procedures that can be used to diagnose a rotator cuff tear:
1) A routine shoulder MRI, which takes about 25 minutes of actual scan time, and
2) A shoulder MR arthrogram, which includes an X-ray procedure during which contrast is injected directly into your shoulder joint space followed by an MRI.

An MR arthrogram is more specific for subtle shoulder joint injuries. Your doctor can help determine which scan is the right one for your particular injury.

Low-Dose CT Lung Cancer Screening

It’s a fact: research from the National Cancer Institute shows that CT lung screening reduces lung cancer deaths by 20%. As a result of this groundbreaking study, most insurance plans will now cover this service. Call Toll Gate Radiology to see if you qualify.

Full-body CT scans examine the torso from your neck to your pelvis in great detail with the goal of detecting developing problems and treating them early, before they even cause any symptoms. A painless CT lung cancer screening may save your life.

CT lung cancer scanning:

• Can help detect the smallest tumors, potentially before the patient notices any symptoms.
• Allows doctors to see structures in the body as small as a hundredth of an inch, which cannot be detected during a physical exam.
• Is an invaluable tool in the early detection of lung cancer, which afflicts hundreds of thousands of people in the U.S. each year. Lung cancer has an extremely high mortality rate, but it is believed that early detection and treatment vastly increase a person’s chance of surviving this disease.

Calcium Scoring

Cardiac calcium scoring, also known as coronary calcium scans, provide an early stage check-up of your probability of having a heart attack. A CT scan for calcium scoring checks for the buildup of calcium in plaque on your coronary artery walls. In any patients who have high cholesterol, a negative calcium scoring exam would eliminate the need for cholesterol-lowering medications.

Typically, your coronary arteries that supply blood to your heart do not contain calcium. However, calcium in your coronary arteries may be a sign of coronary artery disease (CAD). A CT scan takes pictures of the heart in thin sections.

Full-Body CT

A full-body CT exam enables painless, full-body imaging of your lungs and lung cancer, as well as your heart, abdomen, pelvis and bones can reveal liver and kidney tumors, kidney stones, aneurysms, heart disease, gallstones, benign cysts and tumors, and abnormalities of the ovaries and prostate that you and your primary care physician may not know you have.

Digital mammography

Mammography is used to aid in the early detection and the diagnosis of breast diseases in women. Some patients experience no symptoms of beast cancer, while others experience a lump, mass, breast pain, nipple discharge, or skin irritation.
Toll Gate Radiology uses the latest digital mammography technology screening exams that include Computer-Aided Detection (CAD), which supplements digital mammography to provide a “second read” of the mammogram. CAD can help detect subtle abnormalities such as breast calcifications as an early warning sign of breast cancer.

Breast ultrasound

Nearly half of the female population in this country have dense breast tissue, and a mammogram cannot see well enough through dense breast tissue. We advocate to do all that you can do for your breast health including Breast Ultrasound.

According to AreYouDense.org: “Studies confirm that mammography misses every other cancer in dense breasts.” By adding Ultrasound, you increase detection of breast cancer from approximately 48% – 97%.

A breast ultrasound:

• Does not replace the need for a mammogram, but it is as an adjunct screening tool with mammography in patients with dense breast tissue and in patients with a strong family history of breast cancer or other risk factors. A recent study has found that the combined use of breast ultrasound and mammography detects more cancers, at an earlier stage, and is more sensitive than using mammography alone.
• Utilizes a small handheld unit called a transducer, which is gently passed back and forth over your breast. There is no radiation.
• Uses sound waves to show a sonogram (ultrasound scan) on a computer monitor of the tissues inside your breast, including the area closest to your chest wall, which is sometimes difficult to study with a mammogram.

Breast biopsy

Based on the results of your mammogram and breast ultrasound, your Toll Gate Radiology physician may recommend a biopsy to make a final diagnosis.

Toll Gate Radiology’s Center for Women offers ultrasound-guided, core needle breast biopsies. This procedure:

• Is highly exact and less invasive than having an open surgical biopsy.
• Lasts less than an hour, enabling your physician to examine small samples of breast tissue.
• Uses a thin needle to draw out breast tissue samples roughly the size of a grain of rice with imaging technologies sometimes helping to guide the needle to the appropriate area.
• Allows for quick, definitive results and requires minimal time compared to inpatient surgery.
• Concludes with a bandage and an ice pack placed over the affected area.
• Requires you to relax at home for the remainder of the day; day-to-day activities can usually be resumed the very next day.
• May cause bruising and discomfort afterwards, but over-the-counter pain medication can usually alleviate these.
• As with any biopsy, results may not be available until a few days following the procedure.

Breast MRI

A Breast Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI) is a non-invasive, radiation-free scanning technology that uses radio waves and magnetic fields to produce clear, detailed three-dimensional images of your breasts to aid in early breast cancer detection.

A Breast MRI:

• Uses a very powerful magnet and radio waves to pick-up signals from your breast tissue.
• Detects abnormal tissue because it receives more blood flow that the surrounding tissue.
• Is especially helpful for detecting breast cancer in high-risk patients, in patients with a known history of breast cancer, and in evaluating the integrity of their breast implants.
• And is a supplemental procedure to a screening mammography.

DEXA bone density scan

Bone density, also called densitometry or Dual Energy X-Ray Absorptometry (DEXA) scan, determines whether you have osteoporosis or are at risk of osteoporosis, which is a disease that causes bones to become more fragile and more likely to break.

A bone density test:

• Is simple, quick and painless way to measure your bone loss.
• Uses x-rays to measure how many grams of calcium and other bone minerals are packed into a segment of bone in your lower back, hip, wrist or forearm.
• Is an accurate predictor of your risk of fracture.
• Can also monitor the efficacy of drug therapy on your bone density.

Needle biopsy

For biopsies of thyroid, neck nodes and glands, our specialist inserts a fine needle into an area just under the skin to gather a sample of cells for laboratory testing.

A fine-needle aspiration and core needle biopsy can:

• Diagnose abnormal-appearing tissue, enlarged lymph nodes, nodules or masses (solid lumps), cysts (fluid-filled lumps) or body fluid.
• Help the Toll Gate Radiology experts make a diagnosis or rule out possible medical conditions such as cancer.
• Be used in association with a CT scan, digital mammogram or ultrasound

Epidural steroid injection

An epidural steroid injection (ESI) is a minimally invasive pain management procedure performed at Toll Gate Radiology that is commonly used to help relieve pain in your neck, back, arms and legs cause by inflamed spinal nerves.

An epidural steroid injection can:

• Be performed to relieve the pain caused by spinal stenosis, spondylolysis, a herniated disc, a degenerative disc, or sciatica.
• Provide temporary relief of inflammatory conditions so that you can resume your normal activities. Your pain relief may last for a few days or even for a few years.
• Include both a long-lasting corticosteroid (cortisone shot), delivered into the epidural space of your spine between the protective covering of your spinal cord and the bony vertebrae.

Steroid injection of joint

A steroid injection is a minimally invasive procedure that can temporarily relieve joint, back or neck pain caused by inflamed facet joints, including arthritis, injury or degeneration.

A steroid injection of a joint can:

• Be used as a diagnostic test to see if the pain is actually coming from your facet joints.
• Relieve inflammation and pain caused by various spine conditions.
• Include both a long-lasting corticosteroid and an anesthetic numbing agent delivered directly to your painful facet joint, either inside the joint capsule or in the tissue surrounding the joint capsule.
• Provide pain relief for a few days up to a few years.