3D heart and cancer scanner used

A pioneering scanner which could improve the diagnosis and treatment of heart and cancer-related illness is to be used in Britain for the first time, it was announced.

It is hoped thousands of patients every year will benefit from the £1.6 million, three-dimensional CT scanner.

The equipment will be based at the University of Edinburgh's Queen's Medical Research Institute (QMRI), situated next to the city's Royal Infirmary.

It has been acquired through a £4 million investment by Royal Bank of Scotland (RBS), which has entered into a joint partnership with the Institute and NHS Lothian.

The QMRI is the first institute in Britain and one of the first in Europe to use such equipment.

It is hoped the Toshiba scanner - which has taken 10 years and £250 million investment to develop - will be operational by January next year.

Unlike previous scanners, it can capture entire organs, such as the heart or brain in a fraction of a second.

This novel way of image capture means radiation exposure is reduced by 80%, compared with conventional CT scans.

It will also allow medics to carry out cutting-edge research.

Around 25% of the scanner's capacity will be made available to RBS staff, with the remaining 75% split between QMRI and NHS Lothian.

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