Hospitals ache for hot diagnostic tool.(Knight Ridder Newspapers)

CHARLOTTE, N.C. _ Roland Dellinger, 84, went to Carolinas Medical Center, got an injection and lay on a wooden cradle that slid into a doughnut-like machine called a Positron Emission Tomography scanner.

To Dellinger, it was nothing special. But to the Carolinas health-care industry, the PET scanner is the next big, high-tech money-making machine, and competition for them is fierce.

The PET scan offers unique images of the body's interior and an unparalleled ability to track cancer, heart disease and even mental illness. But for years it was deemed too expensive for everyday diagnosing. Until 2000, North Carolina had three scanners. South Carolina had none.

The states expect to have 18 running by the end of 2003, with patient demand expected to jump exponentially.

The reasons? Doctors and patients want them. And Medicare and health insurance programs, which once considered PET scans unnecessary, are increasingly willing to pay.

The PET scanner at Carolinas Medical Center, which once handled one or two patients a day, now scans eight to nine daily, and a two- to three-week waiting list exists.

State officials recently gave Charlotte's CMC permission to spend $2million on a second scanner, over the protests of Charlotte's Presbyterian Hospital and Concord's NorthEast Medical Center, both who wanted PET scanners of their own. CMC's new scanner is expected to start up by January.