GREAT FALLS, Mont. (AP) - A California company that offered ultrasound body scans here last summer which it claimed could detect future health problems has been ordered to stop practicing medicine in Montana without a license.

The state's cease and desist order against Ultra Life Inc. resulted from a complaint by a Great Falls radiologist who saw patients after they received incorrect diagnoses from the scans.

The company's technicians performed the scans at a Great Falls hotel in June. Customers received their results in the mail.

"One woman was told she had a normal uterus and ovaries, although they had been removed years ago," Dr. Leslie Russell said. "Another was told she had a mass on her kidney, and she had none."

One patient's report also had the wrong name on it, while another was dated more than a month before the patient underwent the scan.

"This is wrong," Russell said. "It's unethical. It's ripping people off."

Russell said she lodged a complaint with the Montana Board of Medical Examiners because she was concerned about the patients who bought the scans.

"A false diagnosis puts people through unnecessary anxiety about tumors that might not be there," she said. "On the other hand, a false clean bill of health can give people a false sense of security about their health."

Ultra Life owner Warren Green, reached at the company's Huntington Beach, Calif., headquarters, said his company "will be in compliance with the way the state sees it" before they come to Montana again.

He identified himself as "one of the managers" of the company, and declined to say how many states the company's traveling scanners visit.

Newspaper stories indicate the company performs scans in hotel rooms across the country.

The scans are advertised as painless and life saving. Appointments are required by calling a toll-free number, and prices range from $45 for a stroke, aorta or arm and leg scan to $60 for an organ scan. A full-body scan costs $500.

The company's advertising is under review by the attorney general's office for potential fraud, said Cort Jensen, a lawyer in the Consumer Protection Division.

"False advertising can result in fines," he said.

Jensen asked anyone who feels they were shorted by the company to complain to his office.