Southeast Nuclear Electronics, an independent service organization just outside of Atlanta, GA, specializes in the installation, service, repair and deinstallation of Siemens, Philips and GE gamma cameras. Paul Eaton, President of Southeast Nuclear Electronics, has been watching SPECT technology develop since the early 1970s.

"The resolution that these cameras are now obtaining has made a real difference in being able to move quickly to spot abnormality," says Eaton.

Advancements in gamma detectors, collimators, computed tomography hardware and software and improvements in SPECT gantry have driven the technology to its current level of optimization, says Eaton.

But standalone SPECT is not without its own caveat. The spatial resolution of SPECT is typically not that high. In addition, bone scans rely on the proper distribution and bone-labeling of radiopharmaceuticals, and can also be affected by photon attenuation and motion artifacts associated with breathing and patient movement, which can further reduce image clarity. When lesions go undefined on a SPECT bone scan, physicians often have to order follow-up CT scans or MRIs. The SPECT/CT hybrid solution has the ability to provide simultaneous "coregistration" of functional (SPECT) as well as high-resolution anatomical (CT) imaging.

According to a recent retrospective study published in the Journal of Nuclear Medicine, 90% of bone lesions that remained undefined by standalone SPECT were clearly identified after conducting a SPECT/CT scan.

"The general consensus in the nuclear medicine community is that SPECT/CT is preliminarily suggested to be superior to SPECT alone in orthopedic imaging," states Myers.

The superiority of SPECT/CT imaging to SPECT alone has been documented since the hybrid technology's earliest clinical trials and the release of the first generation commercial SPECT/CT scanner, GE Healthcare's Infinia Hawkeye, released in 1999. Since then, other manufacturers like Siemens and Philips have joined GE in providing the lion's share of SPECT/CT production.




"SPECT/CT naturally has changed the way we look at orthopedic imaging," said Dr. Partha Ghosh, Molecular Imaging Director of Clinical Marketing for Siemens Healthcare, which offers the Symbia series of SPECT/CT solutions. "Initially with SPECT and now with the addition of diagnostic CT and image fusion, we are able to do comprehensive imaging in one stroke. It improves our diagnostic confidence and is a definite advantage in orthopedic imaging."

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