Physicians using nuclear imaging to diagnose and treat cancer can now employ a mobile PET/CT platform from Siemens Healthineers, which introduced a mobile configuration of its Biograph Horizon PET/CT system at the SNMMI show last week. The company also rolled out a new version of its syngo.via software for molecular imaging preprocessing, reading and reporting.

The mobile incarnation of the Biograph Horizon PET/CT system represents the company’s response to strong interest from “cost-conscious” health care facilities that do not yet have the patient volumes to support the installation of a fixed PET/CT unit, Anatoliy Kalinovskiy, global marketing manager for Molecular Imaging, told HCB News. The new mobile version is also designed for health systems that are looking to tailor their service delivery over a wide geographic area.

On the software side, the company’s new version of its established syngo.via for Molecular Imaging software offers several improvements, according to Kalinovskiy. On the PET side, new features enable physicians to measure the standardized metabolic activity of a tumor.
For the first time, syngo.via can now be used for SPECT for organ processing, to help doctors visualize and quantify the physiological characteristics of organs — such as the lungs, kidneys, and stomach — meaning that physicians can now use a single platform with multiple applications for PET and SPECT preparation, reading, and reporting.

“For SPECT and PET therapy response assessment, the software displays results in multiple time points and allows the physicians to trend over time,” Kalinovskiy said, adding that this is especially helpful in preoperative planning.

Siemens also used the the SNMMI meeting as a platform to announced that its PETNET Solutions Inc., the company’s network of PET radiopharmacies, is now the sole U.S. provider of Eli Lilly and Company’s Amyvid, an amyloid imaging PET tracer.

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