Leeds General Infirmary offers improved scanning experience to young patients with new SPECT•CT system

Published: 16-Sep-2014

Leeds General Infirmary and Leeds Children's Hospital utilising enhanced system for scanning children

Children undergoing scans at a Leeds hospital are receiving an enhanced experience as a result of the implementation of new SPECT•CT technology.

Leeds General Infirmary has been able to offer significantly increased image quality and heightened diagnostic capabilities to patients following the introduction of aSymbia T Series SPECT•CT system from Siemens Healthcare.

The system is being used by the adjoining Leeds Children’s Hospital for a range of paediatric procedures. Younger patients have found the imaging experience less intimidating due to the system’s light aesthetics and inbuilt DVD player to put them at ease.

The Symbia T was selected by the hospital in light of its affordability and functionality, following a comprehensive comparative exercise with systems from two other imaging suppliers. With the advanced and highly-integrated diagnostic Symbia T Series SPECT•CT expanding the role of nuclear medicine into routine surgical planning, orthopaedics and advanced cardiology, the system is being used for a broad spectrum of nuclear medicine studies, including bone scans, DMSA scans, MIBG scans, renal procedures, melanoma sentinel node scans and DAT brain scans.

“Siemens Healthcare’s Symbia T SPECT•CT system is allowing us to produce images of much greater quality when compared to our previous single-slice system,” said Meg Bould, nuclear medicine team leader at Leeds General Infirmary.

“The quality of the images has increased our specificity and has aided us in terms of diagnosis. DAT scan procedures are also a lot faster using the system, helping to improve levels of comfort for patients.”

She added: “The SPECT•CT system is very easy to use and our team of five radiographers have all got on with it tremendously well since its installation. It has been particularly beneficial for more-precise localisation of abnormalities on bone scans as well as assisting with renal work – both areas in which we are seeing increasing levels of demand.”

And Dr Fahmid Chowdhury, clinical lead of nuclear medicine services at the Leeds Teaching Hospitals NHS Trust, said: “Not only has it proven fit for purpose for our varied nuclear medicine workload; it has in fact exceeded our expectations in some areas.

“The system’s ability to produce hybrid SPECT•CT imaging of excellent quality has already led to noticeable improvements in diagnostic confidence in some of our more-challenging clinical cases.”

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