ST. LOUIS - The nuclear medicine group of Siemens Medical Systems is using this week's Society of Nuclear Medicine meeting to announce its plans to commercialize a combination PET/CT scanner. While the Hoffman Estates, IL, company has discussed the system at previous meetings, this week's announcement marks the first time the vendor has stated its intention to sell the system as a commercial product.
The combo PET/CT scanner was developed by Siemens and CTI PET Systems, Siemens' PET development partner, and melds a PET camera with a fully diagnostic CT system in a tandem arrangement. The scanner is installed at the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center, where it is being operated under the guidance of David Townsend, Ph.D.
Several nuclear medicine vendors have been developing hybrid PET/CT scanners in an effort to combine the metabolic information collected by PET with the anatomical detail of CT, without the headaches caused by software-based image registration techniques. In the case of the UPMC system, Siemens has decided to use high-end technology for both modalities, rather than less expensive technology, according to Randy Weatherhead, vice president of marketing. The PET side employs a full ring of detectors, while the CT component is a fully diagnostic spiral scanner, he said.
Over 200 patients have been studied with the UPMC system, and Townsend's team is finding the system useful for oncology imaging, including melanoma, throat, lung, and colorectal cancers. Research conducted by the group indicates the hybrid scanner could improve tumor localization, help create anatomical references for surgical oncologists, help gauge therapy response, and support more accurate quantification and biopsy procedures.
"Its impact on patient management is very substantial," Weatherhead said. "It has altered patient management in a large number of cases."
Siemens is displaying the system as a work-in-progress, and the vendor has filed a 510(k) application with the Food and Drug Administration. Commercial shipments of the system could begin in early 2001.
In addition to the hybrid system, Siemens is using the SNM conference to debut the newest member of its e.cam gamma camera family, e.cam duet. The camera is a PET/SPECT system that Siemens hopes will bridge the gap between coincidence detection gamma cameras and dedicated PET systems.
At the heart of e.cam duet is a new 1-inch thick sodium iodide scintillation crystal design developed by Bicron of Newbury, OH. The crystals are far thicker than the 3/8-inch crystals used in conventional SPECT studies and even the 5/8-inch crystals used in many other coincidence detection cameras. The Bicron design includes etched grooves across the surface of the crystal, which reduces light spread to maintain good resolution for low-energy SPECT studies.
Siemens has added high-speed PET electronics to e.cam duet, resulting in a system that has a count rate for PET studies 10 times that of low-end coincidence detection systems, according to Weatherhead, resulting in much higher throughput. Siemens plans to begin commercial shipments in the next three to four months, with e.cam duet carrying a price tag slightly higher than a normal coincidence detection gamma camera.
Advancements in workstation software round out the company's SNM exhibit. Siemens is highlighting e.soft, a nuclear medicine workstation first introduced at last year's RSNA meeting. The workstation's Nu.Logic workflow architecture enables a high level of automation, from attenuation correction processing and quality control to image review, archiving, and transmission. e.soft was co-developed by Siemens and its nuclear medicine partner Toshiba.
Notable e.soft features include Galleria, which enables users to input their preferences for image viewing and store them as a user-configurable display. Another e.soft feature, Voom, acts an online operations manager that tracks all the activities in a department, such as gamma camera use and availability. Shipments of e.soft began in April.
By Brian Casey
AuntMinnie.com staff writer
June 6, 2000
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