CHICAGO, Nov. 28 /PRNewswire/ -- Details of a new technology that holds
promise to revolutionize the field of molecular imaging were revealed today at
the annual meeting of the Radiological Society of North America. The new
imaging device increases the speed of imaging more than 10-fold.
The new technology, Dynamic SPECT (D-SPECT), employs a compact camera with
a bank of detector/collimator columns. Tungsten collimators are employed in
front of multiple small cadmium zinc telluride crystals. Each detector column
turns independently, allowing the object of interest to be viewed from
hundreds to thousands of different viewing angles, according to lead author
Daniel S. Berman, M.D., professor of medicine at University of California, Los
Angeles (UCLA). This strategy enables imaging photons and localizing them in
an entirely new way, he added.
"In evaluating heart disease, this breakthrough in technology could unlock
the door to much faster and more accurate cardiac stress imaging and better
identification of patients at risk," said Dr. Berman.
There has been no fundamental change in single photon imaging systems
since the electrical engineer, Hal O. Anger, invented the nuclear camera
instrumentation that has been used for the past 50 years.
"The Anger camera has been one of the most enduring and innovative designs
in the history of medical imaging," noted Jack A. Ziffer, Ph.D., M.D.,
chairman of the Radiology Department at Baptist Hospital of Miami. "The
revolutionary design of the D-SPECT system may change the way we image
molecular processes in the body, having ramifications for CT as well."
Phantom studies were carried out to assess sensitivity and resolution of
D-SPECT in comparison with the conventional Anger Camera SPECT (A-SPECT). In
all studies, the D-SPECT system sensitivity was more than 10 times greater
than A-SPECT. D-SPECT spatial resolution was two times higher than A-SPECT,
despite imaging for one-tenth the time. Excellent images in human volunteers
have also been obtained in two minutes with D-SPECT compared to 17 minutes
with conventional SPECT, according to Dr. Berman.
In the nuclear environment, this innovative way of imaging photons and
determining their source provides sensitivity gains of at least 10-fold. That
would enable decreasing radiation dose 10-fold, or imaging 10 times faster.
Because of that, entirely new tracers can be developed, promising to
revolutionize the fields of cardiac and oncologic imaging, according to Dr.
Ziffer. In conjunction with CT, this fast new SPECT approach could lead to the
routine use of smart contrast agents, taking the guess work out of CT
interpretation, added Dr Ziffer.
Disclosure: Dr. Berman is a consultant to Spectrum-Dynamics and holds
stock in the company, and Dr. Ziffer is a member of the Spectrum-Dynamics
Medical Advisory Board.
RSNA is an association of more than 38,000 radiologists, radiation
oncologists, medical physicists and related scientists committed to promoting
excellence in radiology through education and by fostering research, with the
ultimate goal of improving patient care. The Society is based in Oak Brook,
Ill.
SOURCE Radiological Society of North America
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NOTE TO EDITORS: Copies of RSNA 2005 news releases and electronic
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