WAUKESHA, Wis., April 8, 2014 /PRNewswire/ -- GE Healthcare,
a unit of General Electric Company (NYSE: GE), today announced that
it received U.S. FDA 510(k) clearance of its Q.Clear^ technology –
technology that can provide up to two times improvement in both
quantitative accuracy and image quality in PET/CT imaging.
This is an innovative new tool for clinicians across the entire
care continuum including diagnosis, staging, treatment planning,
and treatment assessment.
Over the last decade, PET image reconstruction technology has
been designed to provide better image quality, reduced acquisition
time and lower injected dose. Current PET iterative reconstruction
technologies, such as Time of Flight (TOF) and OSEM, force a
compromise between image quality and quantitation. GE
Healthcare's new Q.Clear technology shows the advantage of full
convergence PET imaging with no more compromise between
quantitation and image quality.
"Q.Clear is a major step forward because it can give us a
consistent and reliable measurement when determining whether the
current course of a patient's cancer treatment is effective," said
Dr. Gustav von Schulthess, Nuclear
Medicine Chair at University Hospital Zurich. "It will give
the oncologist more confidence because if a change of therapy is
needed, you want accurate information early on to best adjust
treatment for the patient."
Clinicians not only want the ability to detect smaller lesions,
but the ability to determine earlier whether the patient is
responding to current treatment. Q.Clear aims to help in both areas
by providing better quantitation accuracy for truly personalized
medicine. Coupled with GE Healthcare's Q.Suite, which
introduced the importance of eliminating variability such as
respiratory motion, Q.Clear can enable clinicians to assess
treatment response accurately so they can provide the best patient
care.
"We know that approximately 70% of cancer patients don't always
respond to their initial course of treatment," said Steve Gray, president and CEO of GE Healthcare
MICT. "If we can give clinicians an accurate, reliable, and
faster tool to confirm that a change in treatment is needed, the
patient will benefit greatly. For example, PET/CT can help
clinicians determine whether chemotherapy is working in fewer
cycles, saving patients unnecessary procedures. Q.Clear gives
clinicians the ability to help make that determination."
^ Not available for sale in all regions. For countries
that require CE marking, Q.Clear is not yet CE marked and cannot be
placed on the market or put into service in such countries until it
is made to comply with CE marking.
About GE Healthcare
GE Healthcare provides transformational medical technologies and
services to meet the demand for increased access, enhanced quality
and more affordable healthcare around the world. GE (NYSE:
GE) works on things that matter - great people and technologies
taking on tough challenges. From medical imaging, software &
IT, patient monitoring and diagnostics to drug discovery,
biopharmaceutical manufacturing technologies and performance
improvement solutions, GE Healthcare helps medical professionals
deliver great healthcare to their patients.
SOURCE GE Healthcare