Intelligent Enhancement Provides Maximum Speed and Utility in SPECT Scanning

A new feature for single photon emission tomography (SPECT) enables a comprehensive cardiac evaluation including perfusion, attenuation correction, and calcium scoring in just five minutes.

Siemens Healthcare (Erlangen, Germany) presented its latest technology for SPECT imaging: "intelligence” at the 2008 Society of Nuclear Medicine annual meeting, June 14-18, 2008, in New Orleans, LA, USA. The IQ-SPECT was developed for the Siemens Symbia SPECT system.

IQ-SPECT technology is achieved with SmartZoom, a specially designed "smart” collimator that magnifies the heart while imaging the rest of the torso under traditional conditions. Typically, cardiac SPECT data are obtained through keeping the detectors positioned at 90o and as close to the body as possible, utilizing mechanically centered detector rotation, where organ specific magnification cannot be achieved. The flexible mechanics of the Symbia S and T gantries allow an organ centric detector rotation that can zero-in on the organ of interest; in this case, the heart. Combining this organ centric orbit acquisition technique, fast, three-dimensional (3D) iterative reconstruction that is optimized for more confident diagnoses, and improved patient comfort from a quicker scan, IQ-SPECT should set help the standard for image quality, speed, productivity, and throughput.

IQ-SPECT will be available for all new Symbia S and T systems, and is field-upgradeable for any existing Symbia S or T systems that are already widely available in leading hospitals and imaging centers across the globe. The new SmartZoom feature is integrated into the current Symbia workflows and automation features. From a user perspective, IQ-SPECT is fully automated and can therefore accommodate more patients per day and meet a variety of patient needs. For example, pediatric patients can benefit from a lower injected dose in regular acquisition time, or from less motion and more comfort with a regular dose and quicker acquisition time. A quicker scan allows for less patient movement and lowers the probability of retakes.

Using traditional SPECT systems, cardiac perfusion studies average about 15 to 20 minutes, limiting the amount of patients per day. With an "intelligent” Symbia IQ-SPECT imager, more patients can be scanned per day in much less time; as little as four minutes per patient for a full cardiac work-up.


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