RSNA Day 1

Although today is technically the third day of RSNA, it’s really the first full day I’ve been able to spend at sessions and cruising the technical exhibits.
The theme for my RSNA is radiation dosimetry and molecular imaging, which is the focus of most of the sessions I’ve signed up for. There’s a lot of interest in reducing and optimizing radiation dose patients receive during imaging procedures.
Discovered a few interesting things wandering around the exhibit hall today.
Neurologica has a new portable high resolution gamma camera that they’re looking to start marketing sometime 2009 Q1. Based on the same mobile platform that their Ceretom CT scanner is built on, the rep at the booth told me that it consists of 24 NaI modules arranged in a ring. The brain images they were showing off were pretty impressive looking. The field of view along the z-direction wasn’t all that large though (looked like about 10 cm or so), so imaging an entire brain would probably require moving the scanner to 2 or 3 bed positions.
Gammex has a software product that automates the analysis of the ACR CT accreditation phantom. Looks pretty easy to use and should take a lot of work out of analyzing the phantom.
On a somewhat more whimsical note, the MedicalTies booth had a wide selection of anatomical and imaging related ties and scarves for sale. Although I normally dislike wearing ties, I may have to pick one of these up.
A trip to Publisher’s Row had me walking away with two books and my wallet $215 lighter. Ouch. They should be worth additions to my bookshelf though.