While PET and SPECT have been engaged in a bit of a showdown as of late, with the PET market seeing most of the growth, there was no shortage last year of news related to both molecular imaging modalities. A brand-new SPECT technology even became commercially available.

Here are the top molecular imaging stories in 2018, according to our readers:

Researchers undertake 'largest brain study' using 60,000 SPECT images

Using more than 60,000 SPECT scans from at least 30,000 patients, researchers showed how various disorders – such as schizophrenia, bipolar disorder and ADHD – as well as drug abuse age the brain, by looking at regional cerebral blood flow.

The researchers – from Amen Clinics, Google and various universities – showed how reduced regional cerebral blood flow can age the brain by seeing how their prediction of the patient’s chronological age matched their actual age. Patients ranged in age from nine months to 105 years old.

Patients with schizophrenia, for example, showed an average premature aging of four years, while alcohol abuse accelerated aging by 0.6 years and marijuana use made patients seem 2.8 years older than their actual age.

“In addition to treating these mental health conditions as well as adding brain-healthy lifestyle interventions, we need to stop thinking of alcohol as a health food and marijuana as innocuous,” psychiatrist Daniel G. Amen, founder of Amen Clinics and lead author of the study, published in the Journal of Alzheimer’s Disease, told HCB News at the time.

Spectrum Dynamics launches 12 detector SPECT system

Spectrum Dynamics commercially launched the 12 detector VERITON, a never-before-seen technology, at the SNMMI annual meeting in June in Philadelphia, expanding the market for SPECT with the goal of bringing back some procedures that had been taken over by PET.

"Nuclear Medicine has remained essentially unchanged for many years, with no innovation,” Christian O’Connor, VP and GM at Spectrum Dynamics, told HCB News at the time. “As a result, the number of SPECT procedures has been stagnant or even diminishing, generally losing procedure studies to PET and PET/MR.”

The company said that the VERITON achieves three times the volumetric sensitivity of conventional dual-head scanners, with 12 independently operated detector heads and technology that allows them to come within millimeters of the skin

The VERITON received FDA 510(k) clearance at the end of April 2018 and CE approval in late May of last year.

PET beats SPECT for detecting coronary artery disease: study

PET still comes out ahead of SPECT for detecting severe obstructive coronary artery disease (CAD), according to a study that came out of the Intermountain Medical Center Heart Institute.

The facility, which switched from SPECT to PET in 2013, looked at the clinical outcomes of its 3,394 patients who underwent pharmacologic SPECT exams from 2011 to 2012 and 7,478 patients who underwent PET exams from 2014 to 2015. The study also included a retrospective analysis of catheterization outcomes 60 days after both of the treatments.

The results showed that PET scans diagnosed 79 percent of severe obstructive CAD cases and SPECT scans diagnosed 70 percent. Patients who underwent PET scans also had 12 percent lower incidence of invasive catheterization without identification of severe CAD.

“This has broad implications, as physicians consider what test best serves their individual patients, and institutions consider the advantages and disadvantages of SPECT and PET as well as downstream resource utilization,” said Dr. David Min, cardiologist and lead author of the study, at the time.

Total-body PET scanner produces landmark human images

A whole-body PET/CT scanner at UC Davis called the EXPLORER became the first system to capture a 3D image of the entire human body.

The EXPLORER – composed of roughly 8 to 10 times more materials and electronics and with 40 times lower radiation than a standard PET scanner – produced the high-quality image of the glucose metabolism process in less than a minute.

“We had some predictions but I don’t think anything prepared us for the very first scan when we got it. We were seeing things we had never seen before in a PET scan, and without a lot of optimization,” Simon Cherry, a professor of biomedical engineering and radiology at UC Davis, told HCB News at the time. “That, after so many years, was a very gratifying moment.”

Cherry and his partner, Ramsey Badawi, chief of nuclear medicine at UC Davis Health and vice chair for research in the department of radiology, are hoping to use the system to, for example, better view small lung lesions on PET scans of lung cancer patients, since they only have to hold their breath for a short time. The team also sees applications in pharmaceutical testing and pediatric studies.

Subtle Medical closes RSNA with CE mark and FDA clearance of PET AI solution

A day before the end of the 2018 RSNA annual meeting, Subtle Medical learned it would be able to start distribution of its SubtlePET AI algorithm.

The application enhances PET image quality and speeds up scans by a factor of four, enabling clinicians to obtain findings faster.

“The ability to complete more exams in a day without the need for capital expenditures for added scanners, and attract more patients due to a better experience, helps hospitals and imaging centers enhance their bottom line in today’s competitive healthcare environment,” Subtle Medical co-founder and deep learning expert Enhao Gong told HCB News at the show.