Nuclear Medicine (and PET) rely on computers and gamma cameras.
At the Royal Adelaide Hospital, we have a number of gamma cameras from the following manufacturers :
Gamma Cameras
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GE Ventri dual headed SPECT gamma camera Installed in September 2006, this dual headed camera is dedicated to cardiac work. With the software and gantry configuration optimised for gated blood pool scans and cardiac SPECT patient throughput has been improved. The heads are fixed at 90o and due to their size and high sensitivity provide excellent image quality. |
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GE Millennium MPR gamma camera A single head general purpose gamma camera with the highest industry performance. Originally used for SPECT studies, but now mainly used for gastric emptying studies |
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<p>This system has recently been upgraded to GE-Xeleris workstations, allowing a common operating platform for all the gamma cameras.') "Click to enlarge and view caption (9kb)") |
GE XR/T 4000 SPECT gamma camera This system has recently been upgraded to GE-Xeleris workstations, allowing a common operating platform for all the gamma cameras. |
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GE VG5-Hawkeye gamma camera/computed tomography scanner
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A dual headed gamma camera with integral single slice x-ray computed tomography scanner - a SPECT/CT. This device allows us to image organs functionally (the nuclear medicine image) and structurally (the CT image), fusing the images (image fusion) allows better localisation of disease sites and utlimately better treatment for patients. |
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It has been retained for Intensive Care Unit studies when required.') "Click to enlarge and view caption (13kb)") |
GE Starcam mobile gamma camera Previously used for cardiac studies, this system has recently been replaced with the GE Ventri. Has an integral computer system (proprietary). It has been retained for Intensive Care Unit studies when required. |
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Prism-2000 dual headed SPECT gamma camera This gamma camera is due for replacement with a high resolution SPECT/CT in mid 2008 |
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This instrument was installed in March 2005 to replace our original coincidence PET scanner with a Philips Gemini PET/CT scanner. PET/CT has major diagnositic advantages over PET or CT alone. This instrument combines a 16 slice Computerised Tomography scanner with a high resolution PET scanner to allow image fusion and improved localisation of lesions. Additionally, scan times have been reduced to 30-40 minutes per patient compared to our previous PET scanners 55-75 minutes per patient - an improvement of almost 100%. The acquisition processing system is integrated with a Nuclear Diagnostics HERMES medical image processing system and a 1.2 terrabyte RAID. |
Computers
Many of these systems have integral computer systems, but we also have a need for stand alone computer systems which can interface to the other systems.
From 1978 until 1999, we used the Digital Equipment Corporation (now Compaq) GAMMA-11 system, on PDP-11 and uVAX computers. GAMMA-11 was one of the first fully integrated Nuclear Medicine systems, and used fast Analog/Digital converters, robust computers, 8 bit (and later 16 bit) colour graphical displays, and an extensive software library for development purposes. Although these systems were upgraded over time, and much software was written to analyse our data, the loss of technical support led to their decommissioning.
However, a need still exists for stand alone computer systems. The old systems have been replaced with GE eNTEGRA and Xeleris computer systems. The system has a network of Dell Pentium III Xeon computers using Windows NT and a customised version of Visual Basic as the programming language. This has allowed retention of much of the functionality of the old GAMMA-11 system, but in a significantly smaller package. The imaging network connects all the GE gamma cameras and allows data to be acquired, reviewed or remotely processed. The imaging network also allows images to be sent to a dry film processor for printing.
In addition to the GE eNTEGRA/Xeleris computer, the Nuclear Diagnostics HERMES medical imaging software system and the 1.2 Tbyte RAID 5 were installed with the new Phillips PET/CT. This has allowed all department images to be stored on this system in DICOM format, and transmitted to the hospital PACS, making images available to physicians with reports anywhere in the hospital. Our physicians may review all scans in the reporting room electronically at the best possible resolution.
