Philips Healthcare's PET/MR system is in clinical trials.
Some of the first clinical images from Philips' PET/MR system.
June 8, 2010 - A breakthrough in hybrid medical imaging that will provide data for advancing diagnosis of neurological disorders, oncological and cardiovascular diseases is becoming a reality.
At the Society of Nuclear Medicine (SNM) annual meeting, held in Salt Lake City, June 6 to 8, Philips Healthcare is showing clinical images of its positron emission tomography/magnetic resonance imaging (PET/MRI) system.
The clinical studies on display at Philips' booth were conducted using Philips’ investigational whole body PET/MRI imaging systems at the University of Geneva in Switzerland and Mount Sinai Medical Center in New York. These studies are designed to take advantage of the soft-tissue contrast capabilities of magnetic resonance imaging.
The hybrid PET/MRI scanner simultaneously delivers the anatomical and functional information, such as soft tissue contrast and physiological processes in blood vessels, achievable using MRI scanners and the molecular imaging information provided by PET. As a result, it would combine the best of both worlds, which could ultimately help to pinpoint and characterize disease sites within the body more accurately than is currently possible.
Philips' team of researchers announced in October of 2009 they had developed of a functional gamma-ray detector that meets the performance requirements of the latest time-of-flight PET scanners. The new gamma-ray detectors were designed to be compatible with the strong static and dynamic magnetic fields that would be present in a combined PET/MRI scanner.
For more information: www.philips.com/healthcare
