Siemens Healthineers announced at the SNMMI annual meeting underway in Toronto that its new Biograph Trinion PET/CT scanner received FDA clearance for oncology, theranostics, cardiology, and neurology applications.

"There is a growing interest in PET/CT due to new types of clinical indications, new radiotracer developments coming to the market, and a lot of excitement in the field of theranostics," Daniel Santolin, global product marketing manager of Siemens Healthineers’ Molecular Imaging business, told HCB News.

This new scanner was built with an air-cooled, digital detector based on lutetium oxyorthosilicate crystal elements. Because of that, the system is able to deliver high spatial resolution, ultrafast time-of-flight performance of 239 picoseconds, and sensitivity enhancing the detection of small lesions while providing fast, low-dose scans.
"What's unique about the system is the level of performance that we deliver on an air-cooled, scalable design," explained Santolin. "For everything else in the market, to achieve this level of performance, you need to go with a water-cooled system because higher performance means you need to have higher stability."

Siemens Healthineers took what it knew about achieving stability with a water-cooled system and applied that to its air-cooled technology. According to Santolin, it's the highest performance air-cooled system on the market.

Installing an air-cooled system is a much more streamlined process because there is no need for a chiller. This design instead relies on the air conditioning inside the room.

This system also eliminates the need for a computer equipment room because the computer technology is integrated inside the gantry itself.

"The equipment room has no use for the site other than storing a bunch of computers," said Santolin. "We eliminated that so users can move from a three-room setup to a two-room setup, and that saves a lot of cost in terms of infrastructure."

Users also have the potential to save money with the system's smart power-save mode, which powers the system down overnight and automatically powers it up the next morning. This can result in energy savings of up to 46% throughout the year.

The system's workflow is powered by artificial intelligence and incorporates the company's myExam Companion intelligent user interface, which automates tasks and guides the user through each step of the exam.

Dr. Russell Lynn Roberts of Rome Imaging Center in Georgia will speak at the SNMMI annual meeting in Toronto about how he uses the ultrafast time-of-flight technology to enhance lesion detectability and the clinical impact it has on patient outcomes. Because of the enhanced workflow, the imaging center is able to significantly reduce scan time and accommodate more patients throughout the day. On top of that, the automated quality control feature saves them about an hour each day, which frees up time to scan two more patients at the end of the day.

Roberts and his staff also like the patient experience benefits that the system offers. Patients can select from seven different mood lighting colors to illuminate the inside of the gantry during the exam.

"Patients coming in for an oncology scan are dealing with a lot of things, so there is always the benefit of making this a better experience as much as we can for them," said Santolin. "Our users and their patients are really excited about that."

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