WASHINGTON - Philips Medical Systems of Andover, MA, is promoting new enhancements to its flagship PET/CT system, the commercial launch of its newest SPECT camera, and a new preclinical imaging system at this week's SNM meeting.
Philips said it has made more than 30 installations worldwide of its Gemini TF PET/CT system, which debuted in 2006 and uses time-of-flight gamma ray time measurements for improved image quality. At this week's SNM conference, the company is launching a new PET/CT pulmonary toolkit for Gemini TF that uses what the company calls respiratory correlated imaging to improve the accuracy of PET attenuation correction and standardized uptake value (SUV) calculations. The technology can assist in the detection of small lesions and facilitates more precise localization, and can be used to improve calculations of tumor size and motion in radiation therapy planning.
Philips is also touting version 1.5 of its PET/CT viewer application, which is designed to work with the company's iSite PACS software and makes it possible for iSite users to get access to hybrid and multimodality imaging studies, such as PET, CT, MR, and 3D SPECT. The software also includes workflow and performance enhancements such as a volume SUV probe, fused maximum intensity projections (MIP), 4D fusion, and faster image loading.
Philips has also expanded its NetForum user community concept, first available only to CT and MR customers, to include PET/CT.
In SPECT, the company said that its BrightView gamma camera, first introduced as a work-in-progress at the 2006 RSNA show, will begin shipping in August. The camera uses a technology called BodyGuard to automatically contour to the patient using an electrical field rather than the infrared technology used on other systems. Philips believes this enables the system's detector heads to move closer to the patient, resulting in better image quality.
Another introduction at RSNA 2006, the JetStream 3.0 workstation, is now shipping commercially, the company said. The latest release includes new process and image display enhancements, new image analysis tools, and upgraded clinical applications for cardiac, bone, renal, salivary, lung, and brain studies.
Finally, Philips announced Mosaic HP, a new preclinical imaging system being released at the meeting. The unit is the second generation of Philips' preclinical imaging technology, and uses scintillation crystals made from lutetium yttrium orthosilicate (LYSO).
By AuntMinnie.com staff writers
June 5, 2007
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