DCOL’s Longview Cardiology Clinic in East Texas has been very pleased with the ability, quality, and customer support of our D-Spect camera. We have a practice that has a lot of morbidly obese patients and we are continually amazed at the superior image quality. We get referrals from all over the area and competing markets since we can image patients over 500 lbs. The fast scan times allow for us to do more patients effectively and efficiently. Also, the patients who have had past nuclear scans enjoy the quicker scan times as well as the comfort of sitting in an upright position. Overall, the D-Spect has set us apart from other nuclear labs and we continue to enjoy the camera’s capabilities. Dr. George Leatherman, M.D., F.A.C.C

We are a cardiovascular practice in South Carolina consisting of four cardiologists (three interventional, one invasive & non-interventional) and two cardiovascular surgeons. We have owned nuclear imaging equipment since 1991. Prior to acquiring the Spectrum-Dynamics, we were using an Elscint Cardial purchased in 1998. We were obtaining about ten studies per day with the Elscint, but our back-log of patients spanned over several weeks; obviously not a good situation for a cardiology practice. In addition to badly needing more through-put, we had struggled with service issues with the Elscint over a period of a couple of years. As you may know, GE service is not ideal for the Elscint equipment.

After reviewing each manufacturer, we realized that there was nothing really “new” on the market except for the solid state camera. Increasing through-put appeared to be easy with this technology. It is also capable of so much more, including functional data that has never been acquired with a gamma camera. The possibilities of future developments with this technology are also endless.

We decided to “bite the bullet”, take the plunge, or whatever you prefer to call it, in spite of all the negative comments made by the competitors, i.e.,

1. It’s more expensive

2. Questionable stability of the company

3. Who performs the service?

4. Too difficult of a transition for the technologists, etc.

Our actual experience has been the following:

1. The easiest installation we have ever experienced in 35 years of practice

2. Our technologists transitioned well within a week

3. Our patients are in love with the chair and the much shorter scan time - we can also scan heavier patients than ever before with terrific image quality

4. Images are outstanding on everyone

5. We have easily added three patients per day after only six weeks of use – we are experimenting with our protocols in order to do more

6. The foot-print of the camera is very small

7. We have had no service or application issues.

As you can tell, we are extremely happy that we purchased the Spectrum-Dynamics. We are excited to be working with a company who is on the cutting edge of technology, still moving forward, and have made this opportunity an affordable one for most practices.  

Sincerely,

Joan Cundey, RVT, RDMS, CMPE

Practice Administrator

Carolina Heart & Vascular Center

My aim is to share with you our experience of integrating the D-SPECT into a busy hospital’s Nuclear Medicine Department in a 450-bed regional medical center with a very active heart and vascular institute. Our daily volume is 25-30 patient studies of which 40% are myocardial perfusion imaging (MPI). Approximately 75% of our studies, including nuclear cardiology, are performed on outpatients.
The D-SPECT was installed and operational in early December 2009. Initially, we were involved with technologist and physician training and optimizing procedures. A comparison study of patients imaged by both standard cameras with attenuation correction and the DSPECT uniformly demonstrated superior quality of the D-SPECT images and confirmed its diagnostic accuracy. It was also noted that D-SPECT images in very large patients (BMI >45) maintained excellent quality as compared to the degraded quality noted in many such patients with our standard cameras. Determination of global systolic function (LVEF) was more accurate in patients with significant arrhythmias due to the ability to exclude irregular heartbeats with the D-SPECT. During January 2010, we transitioned our MPI to the D-SPECT--including the reporting of results. Using a radiopharmaceutical dose and imaging time schedule based on BMI and imaging the stress study in upright and supine positions, our routine scheduling easily allowed for 10 patient studies per workshift. We found that a majority of large patients (BMI >50) can be imaged using a same day rest/stress protocol without loss of quality.
The shortage of 99mTc required the use of 201Thallium (201Tl) for some of our studies. Using a rest 201Tl/stress 99mTc Sestambi D-SPECT protocol, we found that the high quality and appearance of the 201Tl images were quite similar to the 99mTc Sestamibi images enhancing the comparison of the rest/stress images. As it has been noted that the high quality of the 201Tl images can be obtained up to 48 hours, we have extended our 201Tl myocardial viability protocol in an attempt to increase the sensitivity of this technique to detect viable hibernating myocardium.
Taking advantage of the short imaging time and high image quality, we plan to move toward more flexible scheduling to speed up the diagnostic process of patients in the Emergency Department and hospital. In order to help achieve this flexibility and enhance patient throughput, we have begun to use initial stress imaging in selected patients and performing rest imaging only if the stress study is abnormal. Such stress-only protocols, as well as appropriately adjusting the radiotracer dose and duration of imaging, will be evaluated in order to decrease patient radiation exposure and maintain image quality.
Taking advantage of the current intrinsic capabilities of the D-SPECT, there are studies underway involving: 1) A single simultaneous dual radionuclide (201Tl and 99mTc) rest/stress imaging protocol; 2) Quantitative tomographic blood pool ventricular function; and 3) Quantitation of regional coronary flow reserve as an adjunct to myocardial perfusion imaging.

Mathews Fish, MD
Director of Nuclear Medicine
Oregon Heart & Vascular Institute
Sacred Heart Medical Center, RiverBend

The Cancer Center of Santa Barbara is a hospital-based outpatient-imaging center. Over 80% of our cardiology patients are in-patients.

We image around 1500 cardiac patients a year so the throughput was not our primary reason for purchasing this machine. We saw the superior imaging capabilities and were lucky enough to be able to purchase it.

We have had the D-SPECT for over two years now and are extremely happy with it. Patients that have had previous cardiac studies on our other systems find the D-SPECT far more comfortable and are happier with the shorter imaging time.

Initially, it was all about how fast we could image the patients. In fact, using a Rest 201Tl /Stress MIBI protocol, we could image three resting studies before the first patient was ready to come back for imaging after the treadmill. The treadmill portion of the study ended up being the longest part! Patient studies were completed in as little as 45 minutes.

The benefit truly became known when the isotope shortage reared its ugly head. During the week of “no technetium”, we were able to image patients with1-1.5 mCi of 201Tl for a rest study followed by a stress study using 6mCi of MIBI. What surprises me the most is the number of statistics (counts) that are acquired in such a short time with a low dose.

Our current protocol is to image patients with 2 mCi Tc99m-MIBI at rest and 12 mCi Tc99m-MIBI at stress. We would not dream of imaging a patient on our other dual or triple head systems with as little as a 2mCi dose of MIBI, but do it routinely with the D-SPECT. Now that radiation exposure is on everyone’s radar, this system is clearly superior for that reason alone.



Tricia Peters BS, CNMT, PET
Chief Technologist
Department of Nuclear Medicine
Cancer Center of Santa Barbara
ICANL accredited facility: Nuclear Medicine, Nuclear Cardiology, & PET

My facility began researching Spectrum Dynamics’ D-Spect camera 3 years ago. The Nuclear medicine physicians and staff were very excited about getting a true solid-state detector. In 2009, approval from our Hospital’s New Technology Board granted us to purchase the D-Spect.

The camera was installed in September 2009. The D-Spect allows us to image our patients quicker and with higher resolution thus increasing our productivity.

The patients who have had the MPI test on both the traditional SPECT cameras and D-Spect; all prefer the D-Spect. Our hospital recently started a Chest pain clinic in the ER and we support those patients with the D-Spect. We have reduced the average turnaround time from 2-3 hours to 45 minutes including results read by the Physicians.

This has been a great investment for our Department.



Bill Thompson
RSO. Imaging Manager
Renown Regional Health System

The Spectrum Dynamics’ D-SPECT™ Cardiac Imaging System has been instrumental in helping the Washington Hospital Center’s Nuclear Medicine department survive the 99mTc shortage.

The system has allowed us to reduce our 99mTc doses by one-third. There was no compromise in image quality with scan times of less than 6 minutes. We get excellent quality images even with obese patients (300+), by increasing the acquisition time by 3 minutes per study.

The system has become the choice for returning elderly outpatients. The patients rave about the comfortable non-tortuous imaging position, short scan times, and non-claustrophobic environment. The comfortable positioning and decreased scan times have been helpful in reducing motion problems thereby decreasing re-imaging by 50%.

The camera has proved to be very reliable- with a 12-month uptime around 98%. On average, we do 36 studies daily (Monday-Friday) and 12 studies on Saturday.

I would recommend the D-SPECT to any hospital or private office who is interested in improving their throughput and patient satisfaction.



Wayne E. Dunkle
Director of Nuclear Medicine/PET-CT
Washington Hospital Center
Washington, D.C.

Our experience with the D-SPECT has been overwhelmingly positive. Our throughput has increased but we have also decreased the exposure to our patients because our camera allows us to use much smaller doses. The image quality is superlative. The recent technetium shortage forced us to switch to thallium yet we still gate our patients and with excellent results. However, the best result has been the response to the camera from our clientele. The speed of the study combined with the comfort of the equipment and its non-threatening, non-claustrophobic design have brought smiles and effuse praise from our patients, particularly those who in the past have had to deal with slower, less patient-friendly systems.

The D-SPECT never ceases to surprise and please me. The camera produces images of outstanding quality, even on large or petite patients. The stability of our system has given us peace of mind, knowing that we can count on our camera to perform when we need it. On those occasions when a problem has popped up, field service has been brilliant, diagnosing the cause quickly and returning our camera to service with blinding speed.
Spectrum Dynamics has been very proactive about improving their product. They have elicited feedback from us frequently and then acted on it, making an already excellent instrument better.

I have been in nuclear medicine for 27 years and have used nearly every brand of camera at one point or another in my career. Bar none, the D-SPECT is the finest camera I have ever used. In the D-SPECT, I have a powerful, stable, user-friendly platform backed by a superior service, customer-friendly, and proactive vendor dedicated to making their product better and easier to use. It has increased our productivity without lengthening my workday, thus satisfying the needs of my physicians, our management, and most importantly our patients.



Dave Osborn
Chief Nuclear Medicine Technologist
Cardiovascular Associates of Marin & San Francisco