PET Imaging and Nuclear Medicine
APPLIED RADIOLOGY — Vol. 6 , Issue 1 , pp. 8 -9
DOI: 10.37549/AR1002
Published: June 1, 2001
Categories
In anticipation of the Society of Nuclear Medicine (SNM) Annual Meeting this month, Applied Radiology recently spoke with Gina Larkin, Marketing Manager for Nuclear Medicine at Marconi Medical Systems, Cleveland, OH, about recent advances in nuclear medicine.
AR: What are some important developments in nuclear medicine?
Gina Larkin: In nuclear medicine in general, one of the most exciting things is the growth rate in the dedicated positron emission tomography (PET) arena. Another is the fusion package, that is, the overlaying of the anatomic image with the physiologic image with either a nuclear PET gamma camera or magnetic resonance (MR) and computed tomography (CT). This technique is something that our customers are interested in. In addition, I believe workflow is always very important and something that the market is progressing in. With the HCFA reimbursement situation, the coincidence imaging on a PET gamma camera is an issue.
One other thing I can add is the issue of non-uniform attenuation correction and the fact that the market is currently trying to validate its viewpoints. There is some controversy over whether this is a necessary thing and if it improves image quality and diagnosis or if something that’s just “nice to have.”
AR: What do you believe the final outcome of this controversy will be?
GL: Based on some of the clinical research that I have seen to date, I believe that it will certainly be something that will start to lead the industry. I think by the ASNC meeting, in the September/October time frame, there will be some growth in that area because customers will have had some time to use it beyond its beta testing and get some clinical images.
AR: What will Marconi be displaying at the SNM meeting?
GL: I’m pleased to announce that we will debut a dedicated PET center at SNM. We will enter the market though a distribution agreement with CTI PET Systems, Inc., of Knoxville, TN. We will market, distribute, and service three types of PET scanners under the brand name of Magellan. There will be three product codes, two with a BGO detector and one with an LSO detector material. We will begin to release those to our customers and our sales force at SNM.
In addition to that, we will release a new computer platform called the Odyssey LX, which will replace the Odyssey FX. That replacement will consist of significant user upgrades to enhance speed and productivity, as well as clinical enhancements. It will include several cardiac application packages for performing perfusion and function testing. So instead of offering three different models of the FX configuration, we will migrate over to one offering in the Odyssey LX platform.
Of course, we will continue to focus on our gamma camera line with emphasis on SPECT and PET imaging and non-uniform attenuation correction.
Clearance granted to new radiotherapy treatment planning software
Varian Medical Systems, Inc. (Palo Alto, CA) recently announced that it has received 510(k) clearance from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) to market the first high-performance Windows-based treatment planning system for cancer radiotherapy. The Eclipse 3D treatment planning and virtual simulation software is designed to speed up treatment planning by automating many time-consuming functions.
“Eclipse puts the most advanced treatment planning tools on users’ desktops in a PC/Windows environment,” said Timothy Guertin, president of Varian Medical Systems’ oncology business. “Eclipse incorporates state-of-the-art treatment planning, graphics, simulation, and dose visualization tools.”
The software’s tools allow clinicians to identify the contours of cancerous tumors and surrounding healthy organs for more precise treatment planning. These tools include 3D contouring in nonaxial planes, Boolean logic-based structure creation, automatic 2D/3D segmentation, and an organ-specific segmentation wizard.
The program employs several modes for showing dose distributions, including 3D dose clouds, isodose surfaces, and surface dose mapping. These features enable clinicians to visualize whether a particular treatment strategy will provide adequate tumor coverage, and where adjustments need to be made to avoid “hot” or “cold” spots.
Eclipse is DICOM-compliant and can import and register any set of DICOM images from anatomical and functional imaging devices such as CT, MRI, PET, and SPECT. The software incorporates these images to help define the region to be treated with radiation and to establish radiation dosages.
Sagemark acquires Premier PET Imaging International, Inc.
The Sagemark Companies Ltd. recently acquired Premier PET Imaging International, Inc.
Premier was formed to own and operate outpatient medical diagnostic imaging centers throughout the United States utilizing positron emission tomography (PET) scanning equipment. Its first PET Center is under construction in Wichita, KS, and is expected to commence operations in July 2001.
“We are excited to be involved in the PET medical imaging field, providing noninvasive diagnostic procedures that are more accurate than any other medical imaging procedure available today. The Company believes that PET imaging is truly a revolutionary technology that will save lives while appealing to an enormous potential market” states Ted Shapiro, the President and CEO of Sagemark.
Stephen A. Schulman, MD, Chairman of the Board and Chief Executive Officer of Premier, said, “I believe that the Kansas facility will be the first in a succession of successful PET centers that the company plans to own and operate throughout the United States utilizing this remarkable technology.”
Syncor and Heart Care Imaging join forces to support PET
Syncor International Corporation (Woodland Hills, CA) and Heart Care Imaging (HCI) of Jupiter, FL, have announced a 2-year agreement to jointly make their services available to support positron emission tomography (PET) applications in outpatient clinics, practice management groups, and hospitals in the Mid-Atlantic and southeastern United States.
Rod Boone, President and Chief Executive Officer of Syncor’s Pharmacy Services division, said, “Through this agreement with HCI, Syncor will be the sole provider of FDG, the most popular radioisotope used in PET studies, to HCI’s customers. Our arrangement will provide outpatient clinics, practice management groups, and hospitals greater access to this advanced medical technology in a manner that is convenient and cost effective.”
Robert Stilley, President and Chief Executive Officer of Heart Care Imaging added, “Through the use of group purchasing agreements, our extensive relationships within the healthcare industry, and knowledge of licensing, financing and facility management, HCI offers its clients a very effective outsourced solution for improving the management of imaging services. By extending our imaging management services to include PET, we are helping doctors and their patients by providing greater access to this critical diagnostic tool.”
More from Marconi
New magnetic materials for MRI scanners developed
Marconi Medical Systems, in collaboration with physicists at Imperial College of London, has developed a new magnetic material that can be used in high magnetic field environments inside magnetic resonance (MR) scanners. The material is expected to improve performance by concentrating and shaping radiofrequency (RF) flux patterns used in the acquisition of the MR image with increased immunity to external disturbances.
The work involved collaboration between the physics department of Imperial College, the Clinical Sciences Centre MR Unit of the Imperial Medical School, and Marconi Caswell in the United Kindom.
Micro-structured materials are part of a larger family called photonic band gap materials, which have exotic properties, including high magnetic permeability, electric permeability, and refractive index. These parameters may even take negative values, which has not been possible with previous materials, and may produce dramatic physical effects. The micro-structured material is designed specifically for application in MR systems and has a high magnetic permeability for RF fields, but not for static fields. It also has applications as a magnetic screen and, potentially, as a magnetic lens.
The results of the first demonstration using this material as a flux guide to image a human finger remotely suggests that this may lead to dramatic improvements in the performance of magnetic resonance scanners, delivering a faster and more effective medical imaging capability.
The research team is a collaboration among Dr. Michael Wiltshire of Marconi Caswell Ltd., Professor John Pendry of the Imperial College Physics Department, and Professors Joseph Hajnal and Ian Young of the Robert Steiner Magnetic Resonance Unit, MRC Clinical Sciences Centre. They published the results in the February 2, 2001 issue of Science.
Citation
. PET Imaging and Nuclear Medicine. APPLIED RADIOLOGY. 2001;6(1):8-9. doi:10.37549/AR1002.