GE Healthcare SPECT/CT and PET/CT Systems Enhance Personalized Patient Care

June 10, 2017 — GE Healthcare showcased positron emission tomography (PET) and single photon emission computed tomography/computed tomography (SPECT/CT) advancements at the Society of Nuclear Medicine and Molecular Imaging (SNMMI) 2017 that will enable clinicians to deliver personalized, quantitative results to patients. Introduced in 2016, Discovery MI and Discovery NM/CT 670 CZT both offer flexible, digital capabilities that help clinicians guide treatment and support patients with sensitive care while creating an environment for compelling research.

Discovery NM/CT 670 CZT features a state-of-the-art digital detector that represents the next generation of SPECT/CT systems. Powered by the quantitative applications available on GE Healthcare’s nuclear medicine-dedicated workstation, Xeleris 4.0, clinicians can enjoy the certainty of quantitation in customizable, easy-to-read reports across multiple care areas.

According to the company, Discovery NM/CT 670 CZT remains the world’s only general-purpose SPECT/CT imaging system with cadmium zinc telluride (CZT) technology, which enables direct conversion of photons into a digital signal, thus making it more efficient. Over the last year, research collaborations with Rambam Health Center, Barnes-Jewish Hospital, St. Jean Clinic and Hospices Civils de Lyon have demonstrated Discovery NM/CT 670 CZT’s potential impact in guiding patient management, dose reduction and department operations. The system was engineered for patient comfort and to deliver greater than 40 percent improvements in SPECT contrast to noise ratio2, as well as up to a 75 percent dose or time reduction.1

Having the ability to complete multiple scans in a single visit and reduce the injected dose or the scan time represents not only an improved patient experience, but also provides economic and clinical benefits. “The system provides further dose reduction over conventional technologies, and therefore, it could lower the overall cost of radiopharmaceuticals and deliver financial benefits to the nuclear medicine department,” stated Prof. C. Scheiber, Hospices Civils de Lyon, France.

GE Healthcare also introduced Discovery 670 DR, a digital-ready conventional SPECT/CT system, requiring a simple two-day in-field upgrade to CZT technology. The system’s modular design offers an investment protection for easy upgradability to digital. Both Discovery NM/CT 670 CZT and Discovery 670 DR are now powered by the latest 16 slice CT sub-system, offering additional improvements in CT image quality with an overlap reconstruction which enables 32 slices per rotation.

Discovery MI was created to help clinicians diagnose and stage disease earlier and better guide treatment strategies while enabling more compelling research with more novel, faster decaying tracers. Discovery MI brings together the sensitivity of digital detection, with innovative reconstruction technology: the combination of Time-of-Flight (TOF) and Q.Clear. The result is outstanding resolution to improve the detection of small lesions.

“One of the most striking features of Discovery MI is the improved sensitivity,” said Ronny Ralf Buechel, M.D., a cardiologist and nuclear medicine physician from Zurich. “We didn’t know how low we could go with the injected activity and radiation dose, so we began to cautiously lower the dose. Now, we are around 50 percent of the injected dose for PET scans compared to the prior system — around 1 mSv for a complete rest/stress study and what remains important for cardiac imagers is the reduced activity of ammonia without any deterioration in image quality.”

GE plans to introduce a scalable offering to the Discovery MI that will make a three-ring, 15cm axial field of view available, which provides greater access to digital technology to more customers. The three-ring is fully upgradeable in existing units in the field to the 20cm four-ring. With this flexibility, this system is a long-term, fully scalable investment that will allow hospitals to upgrade as patient and department needs change over the years.

GE Healthcare is also introducing Discovery MI DR, a versatile, digital-ready PET/CT system that provides reliable images, faster scan times, low dose and accurate quantitation and allows physicians to image clinically challenging cases, including cardiac and brain imaging. Discovery MI DR’s modular design allows customers to acquire the system that fits their needs and allows for easy and cost-effective upgrade options.

For more information: www.gehealthcare.com

References

1. Together with Clarity 2D/Evolution Technology. Compared to D670 Pro/ES/DR without Clarity 2D/Evolution Technology. Demonstrated in phantom testing using the NEMA IEC Body Phantom.

2. Demonstrated in phantom testing using the NEMA IEC Body Phantom at 50 percent scan times with Evolution Technology.