On the way of scientific research and technical development, MinFound Medical accomplished PET detector digitalization. By now MinFound Medical's PET/CT solutions include middle-range and high-end solutions with comprehensive clinical applications, including widely required function of radiotherapy positioning mode. Let’s break down main characteristics in details.
MinFound PET detector digital technology utilizes digital signal processing hardware as a means to achieve accurate sampling of scintillation pulses. Compared with traditional analog detector technology, digital detector technology has better time, energy and spatial resolution, can obtain higher quality clinical images, and improve lesion conspicuousness, lesion clarity and diagnostic confidence. At the same time, the application of digital detector technology can shorten the acquisition time or reduce the dose of radioactive tracers [1][2][3][4], thereby improving the acquisition efficiency or reducing the radiation dose.
Clinical image based on a device's Clinical image based on MinFound ScintCare
PMT-PET analog detector PET/CT 730T SiPM digital detector
MinFound Medical’s ScintCare PET/CT series are adhered to independent innovation. The intelligent motion artifact correction technology uses the statistical difference of the moving ray source in the projection domain to extract motion information and intelligent tracking to realize the correction of head, breathing, heart and other motion artifacts. Intelligent motion artifact correction technology can eliminate image quality degradation or motion artifacts caused by patient motion without adding any clinical burden (extra scan), thus providing more accurate and realistic images for clinic[5 ][6].
▲Images before and after intelligent head motion artifact correction
(Left image: front, right image: rear)
▲Smart Heart Motion Tracking Image
The radiation brought by PET/CT scanning often causes concerns regarding "nuclear discoloration". The standard dose of traditional PET/CT imaging is generally 0.12~0.15mCi/kg. If the dose or scanning time is reduced, the image quality and focus of PET images will be affected. Accuracy of detection and quantification.
The "DosePower" low-dose module developed by MinFound Medical employed in its PET/CT products adopts a hybrid iterative intelligent reconstruction method based on the data domain and the image domain, which can well preserve the details and contrast of the image,furthermore, effectively solve the over-smoothing problems caused by general algorithms. It singificantly facilitates to lower clinical injection dose (0.04~0.07mCi/kg), faster scanning (<60s), and more accurate images[7][8][9][10][11].
▲Schematic diagram of intelligent low-dose reconstruction algorithm
▲Comparison of Clinical Image Effects
The image quality of PET/CT equipment depends on the performance status of key components, so regular quality control of PET/CT is required to ensure the best condition of the equipment. Traditional quality control methods use external radiation sources and require on-site operation by quality control personnel, which greatly increases the workload and radiation dose of on-site quality control personnel. MinFound Medical’s PET/CT intelligent passive quality control and calibration technology is based on LYSO background radioactivity to realize PET quality control data and calibration data reservation-style intelligent collection and analysis, which solves the problem of traditional quality control relying on external radiation sources and manual intervention. Optimize customer experience and ensure equipment status in real time [12][13][14];
MinFound Medical's PET/CT intelligent full-time calibration technology is based on real-time detector data collection and modeling during the clinical scanning process, and realizes real-time monitoring and intelligent calibration of PET detector performance such as time, energy and temperature, ensuring the authenticity and accuracy of data in the clinical process. Effectiveness, thereby improving the image signal-to-noise ratio [15] [16].
▲Comparison of clinical images before and after intelligent full-time calibration
DISCLAIMER: THE ACTUAL IMAGES QUALITY MIGHT EXCEL THE PROVIDED CLINICAL IMAGES.
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[8]Kui Zhao, Size Gao, Yaofa Wang , Hongwei Ye. Study of low-dose PET image recovery using supervised learning with CycleGAN. PLoS One 2020 Sep 4; 15(9).
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[16] Liu, Y., Gao, Mj., Zhou, J.et al. Changes of [18F]FDG-PET/CT quantitative parameters in tumor lesions by the Bayesian penalized-likelihood PET reconstruction algorithm and its influencing factors. BMC Med Imaging 21, 133 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1186/s12880-021-00664-7
