MIAMI BEACH, FL - Nuclear medicine specialists from Boston have laid the groundwork for a free, interactive Web-based PET/CT imaging atlas. They offered a preview of the atlas in an electronic exhibit at the American Roentgen Ray Society meeting this week.
The atlas, which will launch with about 40 cases, is slated to go live no later than the summer of 2004, said project coordinator Dr. Chetan Rajadhyaksha, chief resident in nuclear medicine at the Joint Program in Nuclear Medicine (JPNM). The compendium of normal and benign pathology findings in FDG-PET and PET/CT will be hosted at the JPNM site.
"As…the use of PET and PET/CT becomes more widespread, our understanding of normal and pathologic patterns of FDG uptake is improving," Rajadhyaksha's group wrote in their exhibit. "Ability to recognize patterns and intensity of uptake…is essential for proper interpretation when evaluating onocologic patients."
In addition to exemplary cases, the atlas will address some of the technical challenges associated with PET and PET/CT including reconstruction and artifacts.
The site will be open and available to all (physicians, students, techs, patients), Rajadhyaksha told AuntMinnie.com. "At this time you can see we have tried to focus on normal and nonmalignant findings," he added. "The next phase will incorporate an oncology atlas. We are beginning with lymphoma and lung cancer."
The JPNM is a collaborative venture between Harvard Medical School, Beth Israel Deaconness Medical Center, and Brigham and Women's Hospital. Rajadhyaksha's co-developers included physicians and programmers for all three institutions.
By AuntMinnie.com staff writersMay 7, 2004
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