The CZK 38 million device was inaugurated by Ivo Rovný, the director of Brno University Hospital (FN Brno), along with his deputies Radoslav Basel and Marek Mechl. Patients can now undergo two different tests, a full-blown CT scan and a scintigraphy, in a single scan. Photo credit: Brno University Hospital
Brno, June 29 (BD) – Doctors at the Department of Radiology and Nuclear Medicine at FN Brno have a new high-tech assistant. The device, worth CZK 38 million, was partly financed by the European REACT project, and inaugurated by representatives of the hospital management. “We have moved again a little further ahead, both in the comfort provided to patients, but particularly in the expansion of the necessary procedures for complex diagnostics at a multidisciplinary specialised centre such as FN Brno,” said Rovný.
The Intevo Bold hybrid device was developed by Siemens, and allows patients to undergo two examinations in one scan: a full-fledged CT scan, and scintigraphy, in which a specific organ is examined in detail using a small amount of radioactive substance. This will improve and speed up diagnosis, especially for cancer patients.
The new device has a number of innovations compared to the scintigraphic cameras used so far at the Department of Radiology and Nuclear Medicine. The special feature of the device is its ability to determine precisely the amount of radiopharmaceuticals in a given location of the patient’s body, and clearer characterization of pathological lesions. This precision allows it, for example, to evaluate the effect of treatment in cancer patients. The combination of two precision imaging methods is not just applicable in oncology; another camera system, xSPECT Bone, also uses the combination of CT and 3D scintigraphic imaging. “It is this combination that allows for increased 3D image resolution and precise positional comparison of CT and scintigraphy in skeletal examinations, which is one of the basic examinations in suspected metastatic bone involvement,” said Mechl.
Another field where the new Intevo Bold can be applied is cardiology. The camera is also equipped with the IQ SPECT system. “This system uses special SmartZoom cardiology collimators, which are up to four times more sensitive and can magnify the heart when scanning it for better evaluation. Thanks to the system’s greater sensitivity, the examination can be significantly shortened or the patient’s radiation burden can be reduced by up to ¾,” added Mechl. With cardiac blood flow imaging, the degree of cornification of the heart vessels can be detected at the same time. This gives cardiologists the much more accurate results needed to diagnose and treat the patient.
