Design Concepts

As already pointed out the new PET/CT machine at the university of Pittsburgh was becoming very well regarded. Four major medical imaging companies applied to design and build their own PET/CT machines and these were:

• Siemens medical solutions (Chicago, IL): The Biograph scanner
• GE medical systems (Milwaukee, WI): Discover LS & Discover ST
• CTI (Knoxville, TN): Reveal Series
• Philips Medical (California): Gemini

Before the manufacturers could start the design process basic concepts and important features were first outlined. These can be summarized as follows:

Important decisions that were assessed included:

• The appropriate levels of CT and PET performance
• The extent of PET and CT integration needed
• The flexibility of the configuration of the scanners
• The potential for any future upgrades
• The targeted users
• The applications of the technologies
• The cost of the technology

Some of the main ideas that were generated from the initial concept stage were that:

1. Commercial designs should target whole body oncology, not just the brain
2. PET scanner performance was the main limiting factor for:
   1. Statistical image quality
   2. Spatial resolution
   3. Scan time duration
3. CT differences in the type of PET/CT device would be due to the number of axial detectors (CT slices) and the rotation speed of the imager.

Some of the main conclusions from the design phases were:

• All devices offered significant reduction in whole body scan time. Previous PET scans alone took 45mins-60mins. New PET/CT scans took anywhere from 10-20mins
• Future designs would be more specific to cardiology and neurology as opposed to just brain imaging
• Larger rooms would be needed to house the new PET/CT scanner
• New training would be needed to train technician from each field (CT and PET) on how to perform dual testing and training for physicians on anatomical and functional analysis.