CT

The nuclear medicine market is in a state of flux. Sales were unremarkable last year -- flat for gamma cameras, slightly up for PET/CT scanners -- but new technological advances and product introductions are generating interest as well as new users.

Philips Medical Solutions will begin shipping a multislice CT simulator next month, carrying on a tradition in CT oncology begun by Picker International and carried on by Marconi Medical Systems, which Philips acquired 2001. Philips has been testing its latest 16-slice configuration at four beta sites.

The imaging community continued to drift in April on a flat sea of FDA clearances, as just 22 devices, one more than in March, managed to pass the agency’s review.

Varian, Inc. has developed an MR technologies platform that can be assembled into configurations supporting systems designed to research human, animal, and material applications. These different configurations, which range from MR scanners to nuclear MR spectrometers (NMR), operate at field strengths from 4.7T to 14.1T.

Given the high quality of FDG-PET imaging, the likelihood that other useful PET tracers will be approved for clinical applications, and the enthusiasm with which the larger radiology community has embraced PET/CT, the future of single-photon scintigraphy in diagnostic imaging is a relevant discussion for nuclear medicine and radiology departments. Decisions have to be made about the allocation of funds, space, and physician training.

Dr. Robert J. Lull, chief of nuclear medicine at the University of California, San Francisco and head of nuclear medicine at San Francisco General Hospital, was stabbed to death May 19.

Nearly half of all patients whose hearts are scanned with CT may get a shocking surprise: a diagnosis of a serious problem that has nothing to do with the heart, according to a study presented today at the American Roentgen Ray Society meeting.

Heart rate and CT density at the aortic root significantly affect image quality in coronary CT angiography, according to a study presented at the European Congress of Radiology.

The pace of FDA clearances slowed in March for the second consecutive month and the fourth in a row that the number has failed to break 30.

Over the past three weeks, Philips Medical Systems has been talking up its vision for the future of cardiac CT. In five cities -- Chicago, New York, Los Angeles, Dallas, and Ft. Lauderdale -- on dates ranging from April 19 to May 5, Philips has presented the clinical benefits of diagnostic cardiovascular CT. Feature presentations were made by clinicians from Wisconsin Heart, Washington Hospital Center, the Healthcare Clinic of Arkansas, and Lake Cardiology.

The quest for energy, homeland security, and soaring budget deficits are taking their toll on other federally funded programs, and one of the victims could be nuclear medicine research. As detailed in the article on page 13 by Senior Editor James Brice, the Bush administration's budget proposal calls for cuts of $43 million in clinical nuclear medicine research, reducing expenditures to $13.7 million. That's still a hefty amount of money, but several groups-the Society of Nuclear Medicine, the American College of Nuclear Physicians, and the American College of Radiology-are worried enough about the consequences that they have mounted a lobbying effort to stop the budget cuts.

I feel obligated to respond to the article in your March 2005 issue, "All clinical sides take hard look at PET and PET/CT" by Halliday et al (page 47). The article overlooks perhaps the most important team member needed to "ensure seamless integration of PET imaging within the hospital system." If the perspective of the nuclear medicine technologist is not taken into account, there will be no success for this venture.

A large multicenter trial of CT colonography has started collecting patients and some criticism among advocates who say it may undercut the procedure and produce not much more than is known already.

The nuclear medicine community is fighting proposed federal budget cuts that would end most Department of Energy support for basic nuclear medical research.

Radiologists should not only take their patients' history but perhaps also record their future travel plans. Apparently, individuals undergoing diagnostic or therapeutic nuclear medicine procedures can trip radiation detectors designed to catch terrorists smuggling radioactive material.

In a move that points to anticipated growth, Xoran Technologies has cut a deal with Varian Medical Systems to receive flat-panel x-ray detectors. Varian will supply its PaxScan amorphous silicon flat-panel detector for use with Xoran’s MiniCAT CT scanner. The product was developed for use by ear, nose, and throat specialists.

This week, the Bowers Museum in Santa Ana, CA, will open an exhibition featuring six mummies, each one thousands of years old. Their lives and deaths will be annotated, in part, with information gathered using a 16-slice CT scanner.

The growth of cardiac imaging represents perhaps the heaviest impact of CT on diagnostic imaging. Hospital information technology infrastructures are the first to feel the weight.

Planar’s Dashboard hits the roadMedical displays are proliferating, appearing not just in radiology but in far-flung corners of hospitals and physician offices. To help PACS administrators manage those displays, Planar has developed the Dome Dashboard software console. This console, which is now commercially available, simplifies the centralized management, monitoring, and control of medical imaging displays. Dashboard alerts administrators when a display slips out of alignment, such as a change in the white level or drop in DICOM calibration conformance.

Barco is stepping up efforts to make soft-copy solutions a vital tool in gastrointestinal exams. U.S. regulatory authorities this month cleared the company’s colonography software application for distribution to the potentially sizable screening market.

It’s funny how words lend themselves to different meanings. Change the spelling and the word “aisle” becomes its homonym, “I’ll.” Change a letter or two and being unseemly (fat) becomes appealing (phat).

Boosted by the introduction of multislice machines, CT has been steadily overtaking other imaging modalities in visualizing the chest. CT is far more specific than chest radiography and faster and more global than nuclear medicine scanning. Although MR imaging is more sensitive to differences in fat and soft-tissue contrast and provides more precise demarcations of tissue planes, it doesn't return much signal from pulmonary parenchyma.

The Society of Nuclear Medicine recently added the tagline "advancing molecular imaging" to its logo. Now it has developed a center of molecular imaging to disseminate information and promote research in the rapidly advancing field.

The American College of Radiology Imaging Network has begun enrollment nationwide for its national CT colonography trial. The study should resolve ongoing debate over the efficacy of virtual colonoscopy for cancer screening.

It’s a shame, but GE Healthcare is the only imaging company doing direct-to-consumer marketing. There should be more of it.