Welcome to the Radiology Pages of the Imaging Directorate

The main Department of Radiology is located at  Bradford Royal Infirmary. This provides the majority of the acute imaging for the Trust, and supports a comprehensive array of examinations including CT, MRI, Ultrasound, Nuclear Medicine and Interventional services. The department at St Lukes Hospital performs the majority of the outpatient and primary care referred examinations.

What range of services do we provide?

There are currently 22 Consultant Radiologists, who support a busy general radiology service as well as a full array of sub-speciality interests. Bradford Teaching Hospitals provide Cancer services for a number of body areas in the form of Calman-Hine Cancer MDTs. The daytime routine imaging service is complimented by a comprehensive on-call service, with links to the tertiary referral centre at Leeds Teaching Hospitals.

Activity

In 2009 – 2010 The Department of Radiology performed over 250 000 examinations including:

• Plain Films 143 000
• Ultrasound 75 000
• CT 18 100
• MRI 7 800
• Nuclear Medicine 5 500
• Angiography 2 000
• PET-CT 353

PET – CT is a developing modality at Bradford Teaching Hospitals

Teaching and Training

The Department of Radiology fully supports the undergraduate medical curriculum delivered by Leeds University School of Medicine. Consultant radiologists engage enthusiastically in general radiology teaching, and sub-speciality radiology during specialist study modules. We are a main partner of the Leeds/Bradford Trainees in Radiology, providing general, and higher-specialist training at all levels. There are also strong links with Bradford University with whom we provide training for students from the Schools of Radiography and Nursing.

Modality Areas:

Primary Imaging:

Digital radiographs are acquired in the Main X-ray Department at BRI, in Accident and Emergency and at St Luke’s Hospital. GP-referred plain-film examinations are also performed at Shipley Hospital, which is electronically linked with the main department on the BRI site.

Ultrasound:

Both inpatient and outpatient Ultrasound examinations are performed within the Main Department and Maternity Unit at BRI, and at St Luke’s Hospital. These include general and specialist examinations such musculoskeletal, breast imaging or vascular investigations and some interventional procedures which are best performed with ultrasound guidance.

CT:

General CT imaging for inpatients and outpatients are performed on two GE scanners at BRI and one GE scanner at St Luke’s. The CT department at BRI operates a 64 slice CT scanner which allow specialist investigations including CT colonography and Cardiac CT.

MRI:

There are two 1.5T MRI scanners in the Main Department, the latest GE MR450 Discovery was installed in July 2010 and has the capacity to perform specialist Vascular and Cardiac MR imaging and Breast Mammatome Biopsy.

PET-CT:

The use of PET-CT in cancer investigations is increasing at BRI. It is currently provided on a mobile system but specialists interpret and report the images on site.

Fluoroscopy and Intervention:

Interventional procedures performed under Xray guidance include vascular diagnostic and therapeutic procedures, oesophageal, biliary and colonic stenting and urological procedures.

Nuclear Medicine:

The range of investigations involving the use of radioactive isotopes include bone scans, Myocardial Perfusion Imaging, lung, thyroid and renal functional imaging.