Siemens Healthcare has received U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) clearance for the use of its syngo.PET Amyloid Plaque software with PET and PET/CT scanners.
The software is designed to help physicians assess beta-amyloid uptake ratios in the PET scans of patients being evaluated for Alzheimer's disease and other causes of cognitive decline, according to the vendor. It registers a patient's PET amyloid images against a reference model of a PET amyloid brain to better enable the physician to target regions of interest.
When using the software, physicians can quantify standardized uptake value ratios (SUVr) and compare them to thresholds on the Fleisher method, a reference model that identifies six optimal zones to evaluate pathological levels of amyloid plaque burden.
