SMV to highlight SPECT features for high-energy imaging at SNM show

Company emphasizes crystal, long-access options

Nuclear medicine vendor SMV America plans to roll into the Society of Nuclear Medicine show next month in Los Angeles with a broad range of coincidence detection options and upgrades for its gamma cameras. SMV will introduce a new high-energy imaging crystal at the meeting, bringing its number of crystal options to three, and will highlight its cameras’ long-access capability, as well as a number of software developments.

The company has enjoyed four years of growth since it was formed through a merger between Summit Nuclear and Sopha Medical in 1995 (SCAN 6/21/95), said Lonnie Mixon, vice president of marketing. And according to SMV’s analysis of numbers for the first quarter of 1999 published by the National Electrical Manufacturers Association (NEMA), the company believes it may be the number-one vendor in stand-alone computer sales for nuclear medicine.

At last year’s SNM show in Toronto, SMV presented two gamma cameras: DSXi, a single-head camera upgradable to dual-head, and DST-XLi, a modified version of the variable-angle, dual-head DST-XL camera that supports coincidence imaging (SCAN Special Report 6/98). In Los Angeles, SMV plans to highlight three crystal options for its gamma cameras, including a 3/8-inch version for dedicated SPECT low-energy/medium-energy work, a 1/2-inch option for all types of nuclear medicine scans, and a new 5/8-inch crystal for high-energy work.

“We believe there’s a right crystal for the particular combinations of SPECT/low-energy and PET/high-energy imaging, depending on the clinical site,” Mixon said.

The Twinsburg, OH-based company will stress DST-XLi’s long-access capabilities for SPECT and PET studies, which it calls LA and SuperLA. The camera’s LA capability allows for 540 mm of coverage in the axial plane in one turn, which reduces imaging time in coincidence mode by 40%, Mixon said. In two turns, DST-XLi can cover 780 mm in less than 60 minutes, which the company calls its SuperLA capability.

“We’re trying to bring attention to our long-access orientation for SPECT imaging, especially coincidence studies,” Mixon said. “LA and SuperLA are key differentiators of our camera technology—something only we can do.”

The company also plans to highlight clinical results of a multicenter trial for its Transmission Attenuation Correction (TAC) technology. The package includes SMV’s Stasis motion correction algorithm and Restore depth-dependent resolution recovery and scatter reduction technique. The trial showed that TAC’s sensitivity is 88%, and its specificity 92%, according to Mixon. SMV will introduce TAC II for its Volumetric Coincidence Reconstruction (VCR) program, an attenuation correction package for coincidence imaging.