The following information can make a significant difference in your practice and for that reason is required reading.
SOFTWARE
The Picker 3000XP SPECT Gamma Camera with standard Philips/Marconi/ Picker Odyssey (nuclear medicine) software for brain imaging. This Odyssey 3-D rendering software was, and still is, the best in the imaging industry. No other nuclear medicine equipment manufacturer’s software proves as effective for SPECT brain imaging. The 3-D renderings provide the best means of using SPECT images to show patients how specific brain regions function.
Picker was the original manufacturer of the software and 3000XP hardware. Marconi of England then bought them in 1999/2000, and sold their medical imaging business, including the Picker product line to Philips of the Netherlands in 2003 resulting in three brand names. The Odyssey software is still available as the Odyssey LX in limited quantities. However, the Odyssey LX is not compatible with the Prism 3000XP gamma camera, only the newer Axis/Irix camera systems.
Years ago Eclipse recognized these industry trends and has become the most experienced team with rebuilding and maintaining this excellent camera and software system.
CAMERA
The Prism 3000XP triple head gamma camera is acknowledged as the best brain imaging system ever built which further accounts for the superiority of the images as well. The 3000XP has been out of production for almost 10 years. It was unsuccessfully succeeded by the triple head, variable angle Irix SPECT system that was never as good image-quality wise. The reason Irix evolved as an unsuccessful brain imaging upgrade: Philips/Marconi/Picker made the systems too general purpose with large filed-of-view detectors. The camera heads could not get as close to the patient as the 3000XP because the detector heads are simply too large. They tried to make the camera appeal to a larger audience by equipping it with big detectors, enabling it to do general nuclear medicine scans, providing more application flexibility. But, by doing that, they removed the feature of precision that makes the triple head superior in the first place for excellent small organ studies, particularly brain and heart.
Philips ceased production of the Axis and Irix in 2005. The systems they ship now are an amalgamation of the Picker and ADAC designs. These amalgam cameras now carry ADAC gantries and Picker/Marconi detector electronics to be specific. They do not offer a triple head small field of view system, only dual heads in various configurations. They are only interested in catering to general nuclear medicine or nuclear cardiology applications.
The Philips Jet Stream is their only current computer and they will only sell the Odyssey LX computer if someone insists for the specialty of small organ imaging. The Philips Jet Stream software suite does not favorably compare in brain applications with the Odyssey, again because each targets a different medical group with different objectives.
Philips does not think there is a market for brain imaging at this moment. Confirmation regarding this observation occurred at the last Society for Nuclear Medicine meeting in Washington in ’07.
SUMMARY AND THE FUTURE
This brief history of brain nuclear medicine explains why Eclipse is uniquely qualified to supply and support the best brian imaging systems available. Eclipse at this moment is in the process of enhancing the Prism 3000XP with a significant upgrade of current technology, computers and electronics. This useful reconfiguration is underway in collaboration with a sister company in Germany. The software will have the same brain application software as the original Odyssey.
Three prototypes of new camera are slated for installation in the US during the 1st quarter of 2008. We fully expect they will be undergoing FDA trails during 2008 with production versions available by the 4th quarter 2008. In the meantime I will be selling less expensive, refurbished 3000XP with Odyssey FX computers.
In the event that anyone feels they should wait for the new camera, they should know that it will sell for twice or more of the refurbished XP’s price and the actual image quality will be the same. On the other hand, the current supply of XPs will eventually dry up over time as replacement parts become more difficult to acquire.
The Prism 3000 Plus, as it will be called, is using current technology PCs. Therefore, processing will be faster and peripherals such as printers are less expansive. Anybody who buys a refurbished 3000XP from Eclipse in 2008 will be eligible for the upgrade by just paying the difference between the two systems once the 3000 Plus is FDA approved.