SPECT/CT Technology Offers High Speed, Low Radiation Dose

New imaging technology provides excellent single photon emission tomography/computed tomography (SPECT/CT) image quality enabled by high speed, one second CT rotation, minimizing motion artifacts while keeping radiation dose and ownership costs low.

At the Society of Nuclear Medicine held in Miami (FL, USA), in June 2012, GE Healthcare (Chalfont St. Giles, UK) introduced the latest addition to its Nuclear Medicine 600 series with a new performance SPECT/CT system, the Optima NM/CT 640, which offers nuclear medicine physicians the optimal balance of image quality, patient dose efficiency, and low total cost of ownership.

Based on the innovative 600 series SPECT technology found in the Discovery NM630, this system incorporates the latest generation general-purpose camera with a newly developed four-slice CT designed for hybrid instead of standalone CT use. The CT system, available in 2.5-mm and 5-mm slice thicknesses to optimize dose and resolution required for particular procedures, provides a typically low CT dose at 1-2 mSv for a 40-cm abdomen CT scan.

The Optima NM/CT 640 can be fully upgraded on location from a Discovery NM630 SPECT only system, and may be upgraded in the future to a 16-slice Discovery NM/CT 670, expanding not only its clinical capability, but offering the potential for research use. This upgradeability helps protect clinicians’ and healthcare providers’ investments as the needs of their department evolve.

With its small footprint (5.7 m x 3.6 m) the Optima NM/CT 640 requires minimal renovation and installation costs. With the benefit of optimized CT power, shielding, and control room requirements are often eliminated; saving as much as USD 100,000 compared to higher CT powered systems.

“At GE Healthcare, we are dedicated to pushing nuclear medicine to its full potential and investing in its future,” said Nathan Hermony, general manager, nuclear medicine, GE Healthcare. “We’re focused on developing equipment that helps customers address the challenges they are confronted with every day--high image quality, low dose, and short exam times. Adding the Optima NM/CT 640 to our portfolio helps us strengthen this position, allows customers to upgrade as their needs expand, and continues to benefit clinicians and their patients.”

Adding all the benefits of the Xeleris Workstation with the Evolution technology to the Optima NM/CT 640 reduces the trade-offs that are frequently required between acquisition time, dose and image quality. By allowing clinicians to feel confident in their diagnosis, when reducing time or injected patient dose by up to 50% in most scanning procedures while still maintaining excellent image quality.

The Xeleris workstation--which integrates new and existing nuclear medicine equipment, including legacy GE and non-GE devices--is designed to provide consistent results and enhanced workflow. Xeleris can keep clinicians connected to images and applications from picture archiving and communication systems (PACS) and personal computers (PCs) with their institution and remotely.

The Optima NM/CT 640 is engineered to accommodate more patients than previous generation nuclear medicine systems. With its 70-cm-wide bore and table capable of handling patients up to 227 kg, the Optima NM/CT 640 provides access to a wide variety of patients.

“Building off of our extensive experience in SPECT/CT, the advances we’ve made to our Infinia Hawkeye 4 platform and incorporating the SPECT technology of our Discovery NM630 camera, we’re striving to give our customers unsurpassed diagnostic confidence,” added Mr. Hermony.

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