GE Discovery 600 series PET/CT
"If a patient comes in with an advanced stage of cancer, you don't really need a lot of precision, the lesions are large enough that you can see them by a variety of techniques, MR, CT as well as molecular imaging," said Jean-Luc Vanderheyden, Molecular Imaging Technology Leader, GE Healthcare. "But if the lesions are quite small, then the ability of molecular imaging to detect those metabolic cells will impact the equipment you would use."
The company's Discovery PET/CT 600-series scanners can image smaller lesions and accommodate motion such as respiration that normally obscures them. Subtle changes are detected earlier so that patients don't have to undergo months of chemotherapy or radiation therapy before a response to treatment is seen.
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"The whole premise is if we can catch cancer early before metastasis into other organs, the better chance of survival and cure," Vanderheyden said. "With molecular imaging, since you are really looking at the cellular level, you may be able to see treatment response in a matter of hours or days [rather than weeks or months with conventional approaches]," he said. "Then if the treatment was not going to work out properly ... you can alter the treatment right away."
On the SPECT/CT side, an area with ten times the number of procedures as PET/CT, GE is building its brand with the new hybrid Discovery NM/CT 570c, combining SPECT with a 64-slice CT gamma camera. Solid state detectors vastly reduce scan time, increase patient comfort and throughput. The system reveals anatomy as well as blood flow in a multi-duty study showing myocardial perfusion imaging (MPI), Computed Tomographic Angiography (CTA), and calcium scoring (CaSC). This can help pinpoint diagnosis to spot disease states not otherwise visible while improving diagnostic accuracy. The unneeded angiographies that this approach will eliminate can justify the high-tech investment.
"It's not technology for technology's sake. We really need to think of the impact on the patient and the clinical answer that has to be addressed," Vanderheyden said.
PET Reimbursement a Bright Spot in a Down Market
