COMPUTED TOMOGRAPHY

What You Don't Know Can Be Detrimental to Your Health

By Sara Pentz

Sitting in front of his TV one day watching Oprah, Phil Voluck saw something so fascinating it immediately lured him out of his comfortable retirement life in Boca Raton. With a successful history as president of such companies as Jenny Craig, NutriSystem and Sylvan Learning Centers, Voluck knew he could become involved in the amazing new medical technology he had just learned about from Oprah. ‘I love startups,” says the now Chief Operating Officer of the company that was only a seed of an idea that day.

The company he helped form is Newport Beach-based CT Screening International (CTSi). It’s in the business of using the latest and most up-to-date 3-D medical technology available to scan the body for diseases. “We looked at the technology and thought it was an excellent tool,” explains Voluck. “Research shows that people want to be involved in their healthcare, so we put together a group of topnotch radiologists in the country and formed the company.”

The technology, computed tomography, takes a fast x-ray of three-dimensional, multi-segmented pictures of the body organs. From the neck down to the pelvis, the scanner x-rays the heart, lungs, and colon. Designed as an early detection system, the scanned information can help prevent, and even reverse, problems by implementing lifestyle changes before a disease becomes critical.

This fancy machine can locate cancer, heart disease, benign tumors, aneurysms, kidney stones and gallstones, and diseases of the lung, prostate, ovaries and back. “CTSi provides valuable information needed to help control the future of your health,” adds Voluck. “Cancer, tumors, bone disease and other abnormalities can be detected in their earliest stages before symptoms appear and before they become inoperable or incurable.”

CTSi uses the most recent state-of-the-art equipment, the LightSpeed Plus scanner from GE Medical Systems. CTSi's LightSpeed Plus offers multi-slice and multi-detector technology, acquiring images at an incredibly fast speed, which produce the clarity and detail not produced by conventional CT or by electron Beam CT. This specific industry started when the electron Beam CT became popular. This was the first time the heart could be almost frozen between beats, allowing an accurate picture. In effect, an electronic beam basically spirals around the body taking pictures with a camera as it spins.

The heart scan is an in-depth, three-dimensional view of the heart and blood vessels to determine coronary heart disease risk. The computer measures the amounts of calcium in the arteries of the heart, then calculates and presents what is called a calcium score. A high score is associated with arteriosclerosis, or hardening of the arteries. According to the American Heart Association, Coronary Artery Disease (CAD) is the leading cause of death and disability in the United States for both men and women. Coronary heart disease is the single leading cause of death in America today.

Currently, lung cancer screening methods do not detect lung cancer in the early stages. Four out of five lung cancers are not curable when found. The new CT

methodology finds cancers much earlier than ever before possible. “The majority of cancers found with CT technology can be cured if diagnosed in the early stages,” explains Voluck. By the time a cancer is discovered in the lung by conventional means, approximately 80% are not curable. CT screening gives the medical profession the opportunity to discover cancer or tumors of the lung and colon at very early stages while they still have a high cure rate.

“This is a new phase of medicine,” adds Voluck. “It is truly a diagnostic phase because the individuals more than ever demand to have knowledge and control of their healthcare. The area of medicine that we’re in is flourishing because of the great advances in technology, and because of the current state of the healthcare system, where third parties seem to be more interested in moving the patients through the system as fast as possible without giving them as much time and care as they should.”

According to Voluck, CT radiologists supplement the primary physicians, giving you test results that you can take to your physician for a follow up. This allows the patient to be part of the treatment. It’s a great wake up call to changing your lifestyle. With a CTSi scan, disease does not progress to a catastrophic level.

If you’re a non-believer, here’s a success story, as Voluck tells it. “A gentleman who had a bulge on his right side was being treated for a hernia. He made an appointment for a CT screening. At the last minute he almost cancelled. Fortunately he did not, because once the screening was completed, we found an abdominal aneurysm which was about to burst, and we got him to the vascular surgeon and saved his life.”

Currently, there are CTSi locations in Newport Beach and Beverly Hills. Encino will be the next center. Then there will be a roll out across the country establishing 15 locations by the end of this year.

CTSi is a privately owned company. But Voluck promised that as soon as this year’s centers are viable, there will be an IPO up on the big screen.