Faster, Clearer Bone Scans Are a Game Changer for Patients

A unique Israeli nuclear imaging system, now used in major international hospitals, significantly shortens procedures while providing more precise and clearer images.

A bone scan that usually takes 45 minutes now takes just 12 minutes, with much better image quality, thanks to the latest version of Spectrum Dynamics’ Veriton system introduced last year at the Society of Nuclear annual meeting. Medicine and Molecular Imaging.

This is a game-changing difference, especially for pediatric patients trying to remain calm and still during imaging procedures.

Schneider Children’s Medical Center in Petah Tikva was the first children’s hospital in the world to implement Spectrum Dynamics’ Veriton-CT system approximately six months ago. Since then, others have followed.

More effective and efficient

“In nuclear medicine, we have gamma cameras – also called SPECT cameras – which detect the radiation emitted by the patient and from which they can reconstruct a 2D or 3D image showing the distribution of the radiopharmaceutical product injected in the body. Variations from the expected normal distribution indicate the presence of disease,” says Dr. Zvi Bar-Sever, director of the Schneider Institute of Nuclear Medicine and president of the Israel Society of Nuclear Medicine.

“We also have SPECT cameras combined with a scanner – SPECT/CT – which can perform both a nuclear medicine scan and a CT scan in a single imaging session. Our processing stations record and merge SPECT and CT data. The combined image improves our diagnostic accuracy.

While a conventional SPECT camera has two large imaging heads taking pictures simultaneously in all directions, the Veriton-CT camera has a different design and a different type of radiation detectors, Bar-Sever explains.

“Instead of two large heads, this camera has 12 smaller heads connected to a ring. Each head is equipped with a digital radiation detector. These heads come extremely close to the patient in all directions. This makes the process of collecting radiation emitted by the patient much more effective and efficient,” he says.

And the images are not planar; they are 3D from the start.

Less time and radiation

With Spectrum Dynamics’ Veriton-CT, Bar-Sever adds, “you can shorten imaging time and also decrease the amount of radioactivity you administer to patients for analysis.”

“This is particularly important in children as they are more prone to the dangerous effects of ionizing radiation and we are doing everything we can to reduce this.”

Schneider’s policy is to perform nuclear medicine exams without sedation or anesthesia by keeping children visually distracted with an audiovisual entertainment system.

“But some scans can take up to 30 or 60 minutes and even the most cooperative child may move, meaning we may have to repeat the scanning process. The Veriton camera allows us to finish faster, with reduced radiation exposure.

Bar-Sever says a DMSA kidney (queen) scan typically takes 20 to 25 minutes. With Veriton, it only takes five minutes and the radiation is reduced by 25 percent.

A conventional MIBG scan, used to diagnose and manage neuroblastoma tumors, takes 90 minutes. Veriton cuts this time in half.

“Performing a scan with the Veriton-CT camera allows us to measure the amount of radioactivity and the radiopharmaceutical concentration at any point in the body,” explains Bar-Sever.

“If we see multiple metastases, in addition to describing their location, we can measure them with this camera. We can then assign a number to the tumor burden on the body and track it in the future. This is useful information for clinicians that we could not previously provide with the conventional camera.

New type of detector

Spectrum Dynamics was founded approximately 18 years ago and is headquartered in Caesarea (northwest Israel) with offices in Florida, Switzerland, Hong Kong, Shanghai and Tokyo. The private company employs around 190 people worldwide.

The first task for the company’s founder and CTO, Yoel Zilberstein, was to change the 40-year-old paradigm of using sodium iodide in nuclear imaging.

Seeking to improve resolution and accuracy, he invented a digital scanner based on a new semiconductor material, cadmium zinc telluride (CZT), which directly converts photons (gamma rays) into electrical signals.

The company’s first commercial product, D-SPECT, uses CZT solid-state digital sensing technology, primarily for cardiac imaging.

“With D-SPECT, you no longer need to go through multiple processes because it directly converts the energy deposited in the CZT into images,” explains Johann Fernando, vice president of marketing for Florida-based Spectrum Dynamics.

“The material offers much better energy resolution. It helps detect photons hitting the detector more precisely and clearly so that diseases can be detected. Yoel also invented pivoting detectors that can observe the patient’s entire body more uniformly.

First to market

The Veriton platform was released approximately five years ago. The addition of the scanner to the scanner was introduced about three years ago and is a unique development.

“We were the first to launch the 360-degree fully digital platform,” says Fernando, adding that GE recently rolled out a similar product.

For Schneider Children’s Medical Center, the fact that the Veriton-CT is designed and manufactured in Israel is a major advantage, says Bar-Sever.

“We can communicate with all engineers and developers to try new improvements and suggestions. You don’t have this type of real-time support with the giant brands.

Spectrum Dynamics’ D-SPECT and Veriton series machines, however, have been sold worldwide, including to leading hospitals such as Brigham and Women’s Hospital in Boston, Mount Sinai in New York, CHUM in Montreal and other centers in Thailand, France and Spain.

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