Patent Granted for Shorter SPECT Scan Times

Patent and Trademark office has granted a patent to a manufacturer of single photon emission tomography (SPECT) systems for shorter scanning time and clinically diagnostic images.

These shorter scan times may be obtained by resolution recovery reconstruction methods such as the UltraSPECT patented Wide Beam Reconstruction (WBR) technology. This formal recognition allows UltraSPECT, Ltd. (Haifa, Israel) to continue to provide advanced and innovative nuclear medicine (NM) systems.

Scanning times of NM cardiac perfusion and bone SPECT studies range between 15 and 30 minutes in a traditional dual head gamma camera. Decreasing the scan time of NM procedures while maintaining image quality is a desirable characteristic for very busy NM clinics as well as for patient comfort. Xpress.cardiac and Xpress.bone, two of the systems that are marketed by UltraSPECT, demonstrate that scan times can be reduced by a factor of two or more with no degradation of image quality.

"Reducing the scan time of a typical high-quality stress cardiac study to five minutes, using the WBR technology, compares to the revolution that the dual detector cameras made more than a decade ago,” said Dr. Israel Ohana, co-inventor of the patent. "UltraSPECT is developing the next generation of products based on this patent, with further reduction of scan time to less than three minutes.”

UltraSPECT develops resolution recovery systems that enhance productivity and image quality of nuclear medicine and nuclear cardiology departments. Its products, targeting the various NM applications, are based on its innovative and patented WBR technology, which enables a gamma camera to provide excellent productivity and image quality.

Optimized for each application, the WBR protocols are fully automatic, require no user intervention, and are optimized for all patients regardless of age and size.



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