Scanner boon for medics

When De Beers invented an X-ray security scanner in the 1990s to curb costly diamond theft by workers who swallowed the gems, little did the company realise the technology could be a handy medical gadget.

Now it has been adapted to scan patients for gun wounds and motor accident injuries, among others.

Cape Town's Groote Schuur Hospital installed a new Lodox scanner in its trauma unit yesterday.

The equipment, made by Lodox Critical Imaging Technology, is modelled on De Beers' linear slot-scanning radiography. It is capable of developing full-body images within 13 seconds and a complete digital image appears on the viewer within 15 seconds.

Lodox's Stef Steiner said there were only three of these machines, which retail for R1.1-million each, in South Africa. One is at Tygerberg Hospital in Cape Town, another at Hurry Surtie Hospital in Upington, Northern Cape, and the third now at Groote Schuur.

"De Beers came up with an upright scanner in 1991 to scan the workers. Some workers swallowed diamonds and it was making huge loses," said Steiner.

"The equipment worked very well and could pick up even the small diamonds hidden in the human body. De Beers decided the technology could be of help in the medical field and started talking to the University of Cape Town about developing the machine. A prototype was installed at Groote Schuur in 1996 and we have been developing the machine since then."

Steiner said De Beers formed Lodox to produce the machines but later relinquished the copyright around the year 2000, leaving them to work independently.

He said De Beers still purchased the "upright version" from Lodox.

Alaric Jacobs, spokesman for Groote Schuur, said the hospital was one of the first in the world to use the scanner.

"The injuries we see in the trauma unit range from gun wounds and assaults to motor accidents," said Jacobs.

"About 1250 patients benefit from the Lodox machines a year. In the past, time-consuming multipleimages had to be done but the Lodox saves time so life-saving decisions can be made more quickly."