Molecular Imaging Insight - June 2008 - (Page 8)

ADDITIONAL RESOURCES: Read more on Siemens PET•CT BY BE T H WA L SH THE BALANCING ACT PET/CT: Ensuring Image Quality, Controlling Dose Creating excellent images while keeping the radiation dose at a safe level for the patient always has been a challenge of medical imaging. And since PET/CT essentially marries two traditionally distinct fields, without established radiation guidelines they may not always be used in the safest and most effective manner. Therefore, new methods for imaging cancer patients without overexposing them to radiation are being developed. A study from the University of Southern California recently found that PET/CT imaging of lymphoma patients is an effective method to evaluate response to radiation therapy, and may help patients avoid unnecessary follow-up treatments. The combined imaging modality “is more accurate in defining a complete response to radio-immunotherapy treatment,” say the researchers. “Specifically, PET/CT is able to correctly label inactive scar masses, which are sometimes mistaken for active cancer when CT is used alone.” For this reason and with more proven clinical results in the oncology arena expected soon, Paul Shreve, MD, of the PET Medical Imaging Center in Grand Rapids, Mich., organized the recent Best Practices in PET/CT conference in Sonoma, Calif. The meeting was intended to help create consensus on PET/CT protocols for body oncology imaging. practice settings,” Shreve says. Interpreting physicians may have nuclear medicine, general radiology, or organ-system subspecialty radiology backgrounds, and may practice in academic or large or small private practice settings. “By bringing together interpreting physicians of all these different backgrounds, we were able to learn from each other and find many common concerns.” Conference attendees, Shreve says, agreed that reducing patient radiation dose per scan involves both reducing the PET radiopharmaceutical dose and reducing the redundancy of CT scans performed. “We shouldn’t do two CT scans when we do PET/CT, unless it generates useful information.” Unfortunately, patients are still undergoing non-contrast CT followed by contrast CT. “There is no reason to do that,” he says. “Along the same lines, patients should not have a CT followed by a PET/CT as separate examinations. When at all possible, they should get one optimized diagnostic CT scan as part of their PET/CT procedure. That is part of an overall strategy to reduce unnecessary radiation exposure.” Another important question is how much of the body needs to MolecularImaging.net Vast variability “There is still a great deal of variability in how PET/CT is understood as a modality and how the scans are performed in different 8 Molecular Imaging Insight | June 2008 http://www.siemens.com/biograph http://MolecularImaging.net

Table of Contents Feed for the Digital Edition of Molecular Imaging Insight - June 2008

Molecular Imaging Insight - June 2008 Contents NOPR: A Landmark Study Cover Story: Evidence-based Medicine Points to Wider Role for Molecular Imaging in Patient Care NOPR Delivers Evidence for Expanded PET Use in Oncology Imaging The Balancing Act Nuclear Cardiology’s Next Step Molecular Imaging Training Gaining Traction SPECT/CT’s Role in Post-Transplant Infection Imaging Clinical Study Digest : Heart Disease & Metastatic Breast, Gastric and Head & Neck Cancer

Molecular Imaging Insight - June 2008

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