GE Healthcare Invests in Sequential Imaging with Integrated Registration (PET+MR), Provides Grant to EANM and ESTRO Guidelines for Use of PET in Radiotherapy Planning
Vienna, Austria — Combining the power of anatomical and functional scanning with biological tracers, GE Healthcare is helping clinicians to detect and diagnose disease earlier, and to evaluate treatment efficacy more quickly—showcasing a comprehensive range of technologies and services from pre-clinical to radiopharmaceutical and clinical solutions at the European Society of Nuclear Medicine in Vienna, Austria October 10- 12, 2010.
Vice President and General Manager of GE Healthcare’s Molecular Imaging business Terri Bresenham said, “Our heritage in healthcare innovation and our proven capability to bring clinically -relevant applications to the market is helping to set the standard in molecular imaging today and to be prepared for the future.
From drug development to helping clinicians fight disease with advance imaging for oncology, cardiology and neurology, GE Healthcare offers a total solution of technology, products and services to support clinicians along the entire molecular imaging pathway to help customers understand disease from the beginning.”
Investing in Sequential Imaging with Integrated Registration (PET+MR)
GE Healthcare is investing in the development of a system utilizing sequential imaging with Integrated registration that will consist of two scanning devices with a shared transport system and the latest image registration application running on the Advantage Workstation, allowing a patient to be moved from one device (PET/CT) to the other device (MR) without changing positions on the table.
“Today, for some applications, patients receive a PET/CT and MRI scan, but these images may be obtained at different times, under different conditions and while the patient is in a different position,” said Vivek Bhatt, general manager GE Healthcare PET/CT.
“Sequential integrated registration effectively addresses that limitation to enable applications requiring accurate registration of PET/CT and MR images, and at the same time it allows an efficient use of high value assets for routine standalone clinical exams without compromising image quality of either of those modalities.”
GE Healthcare Sponsors ESTRO/EANM Guidelines for use of PET in Radiotherapy Planning
Both the clinical data and editorial commentary outlined in the guidelines, which were published in Radiotherapy and Oncology, indicate the most appropriate uses for PET in radiotherapy planning across many tumor types.
GE Healthcare supported the work of the task force to develop these guidelines with an unrestricted educational grant. This is consistent with GE’s healthymagination initiative that focuses on improvements to cost, quality, and access in healthcare.
Until now, information on the role of PET in radiotherapy planning has not been consolidated in such a way that gives the physician a clear view on the most appropriate uses for PET in conjunction with radiotherapy. By supporting such an initiative, GE Healthcare aims to demonstrate its continued commitment not only to better technology for managing cancer, but also as a contributor to solutions for greater access to this technology to patient care providers.
Focus on Dose Management
At EANM 2010, GE Healthcare is showcasing the groundbreaking technique of Adaptive Statistical Iterative Reconstruction (ASiR)* resulting in a reduction of CT dose by up to 40%. With this breakthrough innovation on the Discovery™ PET/CT 600*, Discovery™ PET/CT 690*, Discovery™ NM/CT 670* and Discovery™ NM/CT 570c, clinicians don’t have to compromise image quality while reducing dose to their patients. Further, GE Healthcare is introducing new PET pediatric protocols on the Discovery PET/CT 600 and 690 that allow the lowest dose possible for the youngest patients.
Another example of GE Healthcare’s commitment to responsible dose management is the ability to reduce injected dose by up to 50 percent compared with standard cardiac and bone protocols.
Enabled by GE Healthcare’s Evolution family of products and first available on the Discovery™ NM/CT 670, this technology is now available on the Infinia™ and Hawkeye™ product families.
GE further extends patient dose and imaging time management with solid-state Alcyone acquisition technology, which allows up to a four fold decrease in either imaging time or injected patient dose.
Rebecca Hayne
GE Healthcare
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