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PET/CT Comes To Northwest Community
On March 22, the Siemens biograph™ PET/CT scanner located within the Busse Center for Specialty Medicine imaged its first patient. This permanent facility replaces the mobile van that had been used for PET imaging at Northwest Community on Fridays for the past couple of years. Patients can now be imaged five days per week (Monday through Friday), and the addition of CT to PET provides significant improvements over PET alone.
From the patient's perspective, the combination of PET and CT significantly decreases the time spent within the scanner. For all PET imaging, the raw patient "emission" data must undergo computer processing to correct for the effects of xray absorption by the body. With standard PET, this requires the performance of a "transmission" scan which takes nearly half as much time as the emission scan, adding approximately 20 minutes to the study. With PET/CT, the transmission information is obtained via CT within a couple of minutes. This and the availability of five days per week imaging will improve patient convenience.
The biograph™ PET/CT scanner located in the Busse Center for Specialty Medicine looks similar to a standard CT scanner. The tube is about twice as long, however, as a row of PET detectors is positioned immediately adjacent to the CT detectors.
For the radiologist and referring clinician, the ability to combine - or "fuse" - the metabolic PET information with the anatomic CT images allows the location of abnormal PET activity to be much more precisely defined. This is of particular importance in the neck, where pathologic uptake (eg, lymphadenopathy) can sometimes be difficult to differentiate from normal muscular, thyroid and salivary gland uptake without the help of this CT correlation.
Currently, the CMS reimbursable indications for PET imaging are solitary pulmonary nodule characterization and the staging of certain malignancies. It is likely that this coverage will be expanded as of July 1 to include the staging of all malignancies. Additionally, some insurance carriers provide broader coverage, including for certain cardiac (eg, myocardial viability) and neurological (eg, dementia) indications.
Dr. Todd Blodgett, an expert PET/CT radiologist and researcher from the University of Pittsburgh, will be a Visiting Professor at Northwest Community Hospital on May 6. He will give two lectures on PET/CT that day in the Auditorium, one at 7:30 AM on clinical applications and the other at Noon specifically addressing the benefits offered by and the artifacts created from the addition of CT to PET. All medical staff are invited, and there will be an Open House in the PET/CT suite following each lecture.
Fused PET/CT image showing abnormal PET uptake (bright orange) anatomically matched to the CT image, the PET uptake present in a malignant right hilar lymph node.
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PACS Gets An Upgrade
The day after the opening of the PET/CT scanner, the GE Centricity® PACS at Northwest Community underwent its first upgrade since its initial installation in November 2003. Many of you have likely experienced some of the technical difficulties involved with this change, and we are actively working with GE to resolve any problems. However, we strongly believe that this upgrade to Centricity® 2.1 will ultimately provide significant improvements to both the hospital-based workstations and to internet PACS access via Centricity® Web.
On the hospital-based workstations, the patient and examination lists have been made easier to read with a more visually appealing background and the use of bold and italicized fonts in the text lines. The images can now be more smoothly synchronized with their reports as well. An exam note feature, allowing written communication between the radiologists and various points of service (eg, emergency department, treatment centers, critical care unit, neonatal unit, operating rooms, general inpatient floors) will soon become available and will allow for faster STAT examination reporting without the use of fax machines.
Appearance of hospital-based PACS workstation after the Centricity® 2.1 upgrade. The left-sided monitor lists the patient studies and has been made more visually appealing.
Internet PACS access via Centricity® Web now appears more similar to that of the hospital-based workstations. The color schemes are nearly identical, and the toolbars have been simplified. Additionally, small thumbnail icons have been provided to better define the nature of each image series. This information was previously given only in text form over the internet and was particularly cumbersome to navigate when viewing MRI examinations, which routinely utilize multiple different imaging sequences.
Full screen view of Centricity® Web after the 2.1 upgrade. The appearance is now much more in line with that of the hospital-based workstations. Note the thumbnail icons on the left which more clearly define the nature of the MRI sequences performed on this particular brain examination.
The upgraded PACS will also soon be integrated into the CareLink system, allowing easier correlation of patient imaging and clinical data. For questions or concerns regarding PACS and the Centricity® 2.1 upgrade, please call the Radiology Informatics help line at 847/618-4695.
For more information about Northwest Radiology Associates, the services we provide and how to contact individual radiologists, please visit our web site: northwestradiologyassociates.com
If you are reading a printed version of this newsletter and would like to receive future editions electronically, please contact: ckalbhen@northwestradiologyassociates.com
If you do not wish to receive future editions of this eNewsletter, please contact the same individual. We also welcome your questions and comments.
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