A New PET/CT! With XXX Crystals...

GE has a new PET/CT, the Optima PET/CT 560.   It's quite nice looking:

I'm assuming GE subcontracted the cowling design to Kia, and they did a very nice job with their Optima as well:

Given the presumed cost of the scanner, I think the car should be included.

I'll let you read through GE's brochure on the 560, which is quite informative.  We learn within that:

. . .powerful and versatile, the Optima PET/CT 560 is an all-around remarkable scanner designed to meet the demands of today’s mainstream clinical imaging environment. It’s a scanner we built both for you and around you, by combining superb image quality, high productivity, and a patient–friendly experience. All in a system that can continuously deliver ongoing value for you over time, while helping you maintain high standards of patient safety and care.

A full 2-meter scan range.The Optima PET/CT 560’s carbon fiber table extender enables a full 2-meter scan range–the longest in the industry. You can do a full head-to-toe scan in one pass for greater patient comfort and convenience, and position taller patients on the table with greater ease. Save up to 15 minutes per exam by eliminating patient repositioning–and potentially boost your scanning efficiency and patient throughput. WideView imaging lets you easily see everything in the large, 70-cm bore, giving you more flexibility in positioning patients comfortably for their scans.

Flexible, full FOV imaging.

With GE’S WideView imaging, you can position and image the complete patient in the large, 70-cm bore more comfortably and easily. You get a fully reconstructed, 70-cm field of view for both PET and CT to enable accurate radiation treatment planning–especially critical for obese patients and scans where the skin surface is important.

The brochure emphasizes something extremely, incredibly important, much more so than any scanning or imaging parameter:

Boost your patient volumes and revenues.

Your Optima PET/CT 560 can be operated as a standalone 8- or 16-slice ct scanner. With its exceptional power, remarkable speed, high-resolution/low-dose imaging, and full diagnostic capabilities, it can help increase your patient imaging volumes and revenues.

As a Nuclear Radiologist, there is one thing I want to know about a PET/CT scanner: What crystals are being used in the PET section? As I've outlined in a previous article about the last new GE PET/CT, crystals are critical to PET performance. And GE has, to this point, used what I consider to be the lesser of the commercially-available crystals, bismuth germinate (BGO), as compared to the more advanced cerium-doped lutetium oxyorthosilicate (LSO) crystal found in Siemens scanners.

The fact that GE has chosen not to mention which crystals are used in the new toy make me think that we're probably looking at good old BGO's.  If so, that's a deal-breaker for me, period.  If not, we can talk. Of course, given the current state of financial affairs, I'm not going to be replacing my Biograph anytime soon.

I've submitted the question to GE. I'll let you know the answer.