A year after the introduction of FlowMotion, the PET Center at the University of Michigan Hospitals in Ann Arbor is routinely demonstrating how high-resolution FlowMotion studies can help physicians discover tiny lesions in the head and neck that might otherwise elude detection. "We [scan] our head and neck cancer patients with FlowMotion because it permits us to very efficiently acquire better images," says Kirk Frey, MD, director of the PET Center. "We believe this gives us more accurate nodal staging. Our sense is that FlowMotion provides an accurate and sensitive acquisition."

Pioneer users of FlowMotion technology are also using it to perform whole-body imaging-either routinely for oncologic applications or as part of research projects. Keio University School of Medicine in Tokyo began using FlowMotion routinely in February, utilizing it primarily in oncology. "FlowMotion allows us to visualize the tiniest lesions in head and neck cancer patients," says Koji Murakami, MD, PhD, head of the division of nuclear medicine, department of radiology. "For these patients, we perform precise imaging using slow table speeds, followed by a faster table speed for the pelvis and extremities, which have a lower probability of metastases."

Respiratory gating is an important part of scans involving suspected thoracic and abdominal metastasis, yet until recently, Dr. Murakami and his colleagues had no choice but to conduct a separate respiratory gated scan for these patients in addition to a whole-body, stop-and-go scan. Biograph mCT Flow with FlowMotion resolves this problem. "The merit of FlowMotion," he says, "is that we can vary the acquisition time and integrate respiratory gating into a single exam."

Symbia Intevo: One Year Later
At SNMMI 2013, Siemens debuted Symbia Intevo, the world's first xSPECT system, which combines the high sensitivity of SPECT with the high specificity of CT. Completely integrating data from both modalities, Symbia Intevo generates high resolution and, for the first time ever, quantitative images for SPECT. xSPECT reconstructs both the SPECT and CT portions of the image using the high-resolution CT frame of reference for precise, accurate alignment that facilitates the extraction and deep integration of medically irrelevant information.

At the German Federal Armed Forces Hospital in Ulm, Symbia Intevo with xSPECT made an immediate impact upon its arrival in March. The system delivers xSPECT images that localize metabolic hot spots so lesions on the bone can be differentiated from those in the surrounding soft tissue. "They look like CT images-the outlying border is extraordinary; the brilliance is very good," says Burkhard Klemenz, head of the hospital's nuclear medicine department. "Now, for the first time, I look at the xSPECT Bone4 images, and I talk to my colleagues only about those images; it's because the images are so convincing. We can recognize disease localization now with xSPECT Bone."

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