GE HealthCare Unveils New SPECT/CT, AI-Powered SPECT Image Reconstruction

At RSNA 2024, GE HealthCare unveiled the FDA-pending Aurora, a new dual head SPECT/CT designed to help clinicians see and do more, aiming to help expand the range of CT procedures typically available in hybrid systems and provide support for conditions, such as cancer and cardiac disorders, which rely on early detection and precise localization of abnormalities for effective intervention.

“As precision care and personalized medicine increasingly define the future of healthcare, Aurora will play an essential role in enabling clinicians to make informed decisions and deliver tailored treatments to help enhance patient outcomes,” says Jean-Luc Procaccini, President & CEO, Molecular Imaging and Computed Tomography, GE HealthCare.

“Additionally, GE HealthCare is proud to be a leader in the integration of machine learning and AI advancements for more than a decade. As a result, we’ve witnessed firsthand how these technologies can address some of the industry's toughest challenges. With this experience top of mind, we are proud to offer Clarify DL to our nuclear medicine customers, harnessing the power of AI for exceptional image quality.”

Aurora is designed to capture gamma rays emitted by radioactive tracers. These captured events are then turned into data that help create images showing the distribution of the tracer and enabling diagnoses across various care areas.

It also features GE HealthCare’s Revolution Ascend CT technology, offering additional design solutions to allow advanced CT capabilities beyond routine imaging typically available in hybrid systems. This includes 40 mm CT detector coverage – twice that of other hybrid systems – with a 75 cm-wide CT bore to help enhance patient comfort while facilitating high-speed scanning (0.35-second rotation speed) and offering up to 128 slices for advanced procedures like coronary CT angiography.

“Aurora has allowed us to provide more efficient care to our patients, especially those undergoing frequent scans,” shares Prof. Patrick Flamen, Head of Nuclear Medicine Department, Brussels University Hospital. “It permits an impressive integration of the SPECT and CT components – enabling a one-stop examination that combines high-end, high-quality diagnostic CT scans with a whole-body SPECT... Aurora may be the new kid on the block, but its abilities are sure to make it popular.”

GE HealthCare designed Aurora with enhancements that include:

• ASiR-V for lower dose (up to 82% relative to FBP), reduced noise levels up to 91%, and improved spatial resolution at the same image noise.
• SnapShot Freeze 2 for improvement in motion blur reduction while maintaining high spatial resolution for whole heart motion correction.
• Swi Scan SPECT, which enables up to a 25% reduction in scan time or injected dose[ix] while maintaining lesion detectability.
• SmartMar for excellent artifact-less imaging, enabling the reduction of photon starvation, beam hardening, and streak artifacts caused by metal in the body.

Aurora is equipped with Effortless Workflow, which offers a set of efficiency solutions – including Auto Prescription and Smart Plan – enhanced by digital automation and design innovations to help ease technologists' intervention and help make exams smooth and comfortable for patients.

“Aurora is the machine we were waiting for,” adds Bruno Vanderlinden, Medical Physics Expert, Brussels University Hospital. “We can program the machine to run all the tests we do in nuclear medicine. It really is the Swiss army knife of imaging machines in nuclear medicine. We were able to set up acquisitions for 2-D, 3-D, and dynamic imaging, with high-quality CT scans and a significant reduction in radiation dose.”

Also part of GE HealthCare’s nuclear medicine portfolio, Clarify DL is a new deep learning image reconstruction solution designed to enhance bone SPECT image quality performance, an important factor in increasing diagnostic confidence. In a clinical evaluation, Clarify DL's image resolution was rated as better in 98% of the exams.

The result is an AI-powered solution designed to deliver clear, accurate, and effortless imaging – a stark contrast to today’s noise reduction techniques, which typically reduce noise at the expense of contrast and resolution and may impact accuracy and diagnostic confidence.

“Clarify DL, where AI is used to optimize reconstruction is most important,” adds Prof. Flamen. “I saw some very nice examples comparing Clarify DL reconstruction to conventional reconstruction, and it's easy to see the difference and the fact that Clarify DL really performs better.”