Digital PET/CT Technology to Provide Improved Image Quality

A new generation of PET/CT scanners could lead to improved patient care according to a study presented at the annual Radiological Society of North America (RSNA 2015) meeting in Chicago (IL, USA).

The new systems Positron Emission Tomography/Computed Tomography (PET/CT) technology uses solid-state components, and all-digital data, and provides a dramatic reduction in the tracer dose for clinical PET imaging. Other advantages of the new technology include improved accuracy and visual/quantitative quality, and improved reproducibility of measurements for PET imaging in clinical oncology.

In the Phase 1 study, blinded readers compared images made using current generation photomultiplier tubes with images scanned using Royal Philips Healthcare (Amsterdam, The Netherlands) Vereos 64 TF scanners in which the tubes were replaced by a solid-state digital photon counting chip. The readers reported higher confidence in the detection and delineation of lesions on scans of 30 patients with various malignant tumors, using the new scanners.

The new end-to-end digital solid state scanners dramatically improve image reconstruction capabilities compared to existing scanners, and temporal resolution is improved from 500 picoseconds to 325 picoseconds. Very high resolution reconstruction is possible with new scanners, without compromising image quality, and a slice thickness as thin as 1–2 mm. According to the study, the new scanners can use half the radiation dose of current technology, without any impact on quality and detectability.

Dr. Knopp, director, Wright Center for Innovation and Biomedical Imaging, Ohio State University "The system and the technology have performed remarkably well. It allows us to visualize with a higher definition and higher reconstruction maintenance, which can translate into better lesion detectability and quantitative accuracy. Also, confidence of lesion detectability was rated significantly higher on the digital PET when evaluating lesions of less than 15 mm. This research demonstrates that the new generation of PET scanners can be used as a better clinical tool or biomarker, especially for today's targeted therapeutics. The images look crisper and more precise and provide a truer metabolic coefficient ratio. This technology can redefine our clinical work, especially with some of the exciting new tracer doses on the horizon."

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