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GE Signa PET/MR at U. of Alabama at Birmingham being used clinically

by Thomas Dworetzky, Contributing Reporter | October 03, 2016
MRI
The PET/MR being delivered to UAB
Just 16 months after a GE Signa PET/MR scanner was installed at the University of Alabama at Birmingham for research use, the facility has announced it will begin using the tool to diagnose and examine its clinical patient population.

“When you combine these two innovative tools, clinicians may be able to see early cellular changes before any anatomical changes could be observed, and can then fuse the anatomical images and active biochemistry data together to pinpoint the area of abnormal cell growth,” Dr. Jonathan McConathy, director of UAB’s Division of Molecular Imaging and Therapeutics said in a university-published article about the new development.

“Both of these imaging modalities are very good at what they do, and combining them gives physicians very sophisticated, biologically specific imaging along with high-resolution characteristics,” he added. It’s a tremendous advancement in technology that will fit exceptionally well with our PET/CT machines and cyclotron.”
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This makes UAB’s Advanced Imaging Facility the Southeast’s most advanced, according to Dr. Cheri Canon, the Witten-Stanley Endowed Chair of Radiology at UAB’s School of Medicine. The presence of the PET/MR, Canon said, “enables us to provide our patients an additional and a truly unique, cutting-edge tool — one that has great potential as we move toward precision medicine.”

PET/MR has made other news lately. As HCB News reported in September, The University of Southern California (USC) plans to install MR Solutions' cryogen-free 7-Tesla PET/MR system for preclinical Alzheimer's and stroke research.

“In collaboration with MR Solutions we are seeking to optimize imaging tools and apply them in preclinical model systems in such a manner that they are directly usable in the clinic," Dr. Russell Jacobs, professor of research physiology and biophysics at USC's Zilkha Neurogenetic Institute (ZNI), said at the time.

Jacobs and colleagues, in collaboration with USC's Keck School of Medicine researchers, plan to to use the PET/MR to study Alzheimer's in rats, and image assays of in vivo effects of several neuroprotection schemes in stroke.

Regarding more direct clinical applications, in July, University of Michigan researchers determined that PET/MR may be a “one-stop” test for prostate cancer, HCB News also reported.

In their ongoing trial involving 36 men with elevated prostate-specific antigen levels, they found that fusion PET/MR/transrectal ultrasound image registration for targeted prostate biopsies is "clinically feasible and accurate" and that combining F-18-choline PET to multi-parametric MR improves the identification of significant prostate cancer.

“The use of advanced imaging to inform placement of biopsy needles promises to greatly minimize the uncertainty associated with prostate cancer care," Dr. Morand Piert, professor of radiology in the division of nuclear medicine at the university, said in a statement. "Imaging may one day be performed prior to biopsy and, if negative, no biopsy would be needed."

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