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Overview |
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Symposium Framework and Activities<o:p></o:p> <o:p></o:p>
<o:p> </o:p>Who Should Attend<o:p></o:p> <o:p></o:p> Technical and medical professionals interested in intraoperative imaging of radioisotopes, including Surgeons/Oncologist Physicists/Engineers/Imaging Scientists Nuclear Medicine Physicians/Radiologists<o:p></o:p> Background and Motivation<o:p></o:p> <o:p></o:p> Preoperative nuclear medicine (NM) images acquired with systems such as those for PET-CT and SPECT-CT are of significant value in many surgical procedures. The intraoperative use of gamma and beta counting probes are also of significant value in some procedures. This symposium is convened on the assumption intraoperative acquisition of specific NM images can be of significant value in various surgeries. For example, for some surgeries, intraoperative images that provide input just before and feedback during and immediately after surgery, as regards extent of cancerous tissue or as regards specifics of cancer margins, might well be of significant value.<o:p></o:p> <o:p></o:p> Most standard clinical NM systems for single-photon emission imaging (SPECT and SPECT-CT systems) and for positron emission imaging (PET and PET-CT systems) are not optimized, or even designed, for operation in surgical suites. Most are too bulky and acquire images too slowly to provide surgeons the rapid and precise feedback they require. During this symposium, participants will investigate what added-value might be provided if dedicated NM imaging technologies and techniques are developed for use in operating rooms. So that significant results might follow from such an investigation, the symposium will be multidisciplinary—organized to facilitate interaction among surgeons, oncologists, nuclear medicine physicians, radiologists, and imaging scientists, including physicists and engineers.<o:p></o:p> <o:p></o:p> At the symposium, surgeons, nuclear medicine physicians, and radiologists will present procedures and challenges of specific surgeries. These presentations will provide technical professional attendees knowledge relevant to the design of intraoperative NM imaging systems. At the symposium, technical professionals will discuss existing and under-development technologies that might provide the bases of novel intraoperative NM devices. These presentations will provide medical professionals knowledge relevant to understanding possibilities for development and use of NM technologies in surgical suites. Some of the surgeries to be discussed are sentinel node biopsies and cancer surgeries—conventional and laparoscopic. Some of the technologies to be presented are new technologies developed for and by the nuclear physics and high energy physics communities—technologies that might be spun off in development of novel NM imagers. Some of the technologies to be discussed are new scintillators (e.g., LaBr3 crystals), photodetectors (e.g., SiPMs), solid state materials (e.g., CZT), fast electronics, fast data-acquisition systems, and fast computer algorithms.<o:p></o:p> Surgical Procedures Potentially Impacted by Intraoperative NM Imaging<o:p></o:p> <o:p></o:p>
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