Experts say PET/CT system conducts whole-body scans in as little as 1 minute
A next-generation total-body PET/CT scanner can produce diagnostic-quality images in as little as one minute, according to new data presented at the 39th Annual Congress of the European Association of Nuclear Medicine (EANM’26).
Conventional PET/CT scanners image the body in sections, typically requiring five to six position changes to acquire images from the head to the thighs. In contrast, long-axial field-of-view (LA-FOV) systems capture a larger portion of the body during one sweep and also detect more radiotracer signal. Shorter acquisition times could improve patient comfort, reduce motion-related image blurring and help imaging departments increase throughput. The increased sensitivity of LA-FOV systems may also provide opportunities to reduce administered radiotracer activity.
New data based on findings from the EQUIP study supports the use of LA-FOV systems. Findings from the study suggest that the technology could be the key to addressing some of the known challenges in PET/CT imaging.
For the study, researchers evaluated a 128-cm LA-FOV PET/CT system, the Omni from GE HealthCare, in 24 participants who received one of five radiotracers (18F-FDG, 18F-DCFPyL, 68Ga-DOTATATE, 68Ga-PSMA or 124I). Each participant first underwent a standard-of-care scan on a conventional PET/CT system, followed by a 10-minute scan on the LA-FOV system. Researchers then reconstructed images using between one and five minutes of scan data. Two nuclear medicine specialists who were blinded to acquisition times rated the images for overall diagnostic quality, sharpness, lesion conspicuity and image noise on a five-point scale.
Readers reported mean diagnostic quality scores of 5.0 for the 10- and 5-minute images, 4.9 for the 3- and 2-minute images, and 4.5 for the 1-minute images; the conventional PET/CT images received a mean score of 3.9. The LA-FOV system scored higher across the other assessed image quality categories as well.
All images acquired with two or more minutes of data received scores of at least four out of five in every category. One-minute images scored at least three out of five, although image quality declined as acquisition times shortened, particularly for noise.
“A one-minute scan on this system gave us images that our readers rated more highly than the standard-of-care scans we perform every day,” noted lead author Cameron Pain, PhD, with the Peter MacCallum Cancer Center in Melbourne, Australia. “That was the striking finding: even when we cut the acquisition time by 90%, image quality exceeded current standard-of-care methods.”
It should be noted, however, that the study assessed image quality rather than diagnostic accuracy. Researchers acknowledged that larger studies are needed to determine whether very short acquisitions can still detect small or low contrast lesions and to establish how the approach performs in routine clinical practice.
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In addition to her background in journalism, Hannah also has patient-facing experience in clinical settings, having spent more than 12 years working as a registered rad tech. She began covering the medical imaging industry for Innovate Healthcare in 2021.