StarGuide™

Personalized care begins with AI-powered 3D SPECT/CT

Theranostics excellence

Enable fast 3 min/FOV¹ imaging of the dual energy peaks of ¹⁷⁷Lu and the accurate quantitation essential to theranostics

Exceptional image quality

Go in close with a ring of digital CZT detectors for remarkable spatial resolution and sensitivity | AI-based bone image recon

Versatile digital 3D imaging

Digital SPECT and CT that supports your cardiac procedures and other daily diagnostics, and equips you for future clinical opportunities

Effortless Workflow

Simple. Fast. Automated. Featuring a comprehensive suite of workflow-streamlining solutions from protocol setup and scan to post-scan, including a seamless integration of MIM Software
Theranostics excellence

Optimized for theranostics and more to unlock the promise of precision care

StarGuide is leading SPECT/CT into a dynamic new era of 3D digital imaging. Theranostics procedures are becoming more and more common, and daily patient volume constantly grows more demanding.² For many NM departments, theranostics SPECT/CT is becoming a regular practice for addressing the wave of new treatments that are coming online. StarGuide produces 3D images with exceptional image quality and accurate quantitation in very short¹ scan times. This sets up workflows for the potential of scheduling a high number of theranostics patients each day. NM departments that get the most out of StarGuide’s SPECT and CT capabilities perform 3D dynamic procedures with or without CT; cardiac procedures, such as calcium scoring and calculating coronary flow reserve (CFR); and other daily diagnostic exams. StarGuide is helping them get a jump on the future.

Can your SPECT/CT support the growing demand for theranostics imaging?

Make StarGuide, with its proven performance, the cornerstone of your theranostics practice as you build up or build out to meet the influx of these advanced procedures. StarGuide, with its optimized collimator design, allows clinicians to perform fast, dual-peak ¹⁷⁷Lu 3D whole body SPECT/CT exams with exceptional lesion detectability and high quantitative accuracy to help you make the personalized care decisions that are at the heart of theranostics. StarGuide is a future-defining catalyst helping SPECT technology push the promise of theranostics forward.

See more with digital CZT

StarGuide is the culmination of GE HealthCare’s pioneering work in cutting-edge Cadmium Zinc Telluride (CZT) technology. GE HealthCare is proud to be a leader in digital SPECT/CT with StarGuide.

Testimonials

A breakthrough in the world of SPECT

"StarGuide represents a breakthrough in the world of SPECT…StarGuide…takes advantage of a new geometry–the full 3D ring CZT geometry…This system is well designed for theranostics patients…The advantage is short acquisition times…This will help us really to have more great procedures for clinical acquisitions, for the routine procedures we are currently performing.”⁵

Dr. Matthieu Bailly

Head of Nuclear Medicine Department Centre Hospitalier Régional d'Orléans, France

Theranostics excellence

AI-enhanced precision quantitation for confident decisions

MIM Software's advanced zero-click quantitative reconstruction and segmentation for patient eligibility, dosimetry, and treatment management

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LesionID™ Pro

Aids in patient selection, therapy response tracking, and automated lesion segmentation, including AI-based segmentation for physiological uptake removal

Learn more about LesionID™ Pro
Exceptional image quality

Precision SPECT imaging for small lesion detection

StarGuide’s high resolution, sensitivity, and contrast-to-noise ratio are the product of an innovative digital CZT detector design with optimized collimators and an advanced NM image reconstruction suite. Improved image quality performance may help physicians read images with confidence; StarGuide’s powerful, deep learning-trained Clarify DL algorithm improves image quality, with or without CT. Add to Clarify DL other advanced capabilities like CZT-optimized scatter correction and the images speak for themselves.

AI powers Clarify DL to bring images into focus

The potential of SPECT imaging has become exceptionally clear. With Clarify DL’s revolutionary AI technology, SPECT imaging is elevated to a new plateau. Clarify DL leverages deep learning to improve bone scan image quality performance, and improved image quality may help raise diagnostic confidence.⁶ Clarify DL is trained on thousands of bone SPECT images to reduce noise while maintaining signal contrast, for increased contrast-to-noise ratio (CNR).⁷ Clarify DL produces clear, accurate, and effortless imaging.

Testimonials

Very impressive

“The detectors are always as close as possible to the patient, which really improves spatial resolution and sensitivity…The most improved performance is the energy resolution. This is very impressive and it can help us to do dual isotope acquisition very easily. The image of the patient will be the best as possible, so it will be easier for the physician to provide a good diagnostic.”⁵

Gilles Le Rouzic

Medical physicist, Centre Hospitalier Régional d'Orléans, France (4+ years working with StarGuide)

Versatile digital 3D CZT imaging

Get StarGuide-quality SPECT/CT for everyday exams

StarGuide may be regarded as a SPECT/CT scanner optimized for theranostics, but it brings the clarity of 3D digital imaging to virtually all SPECT/CT exams and patients. NM departments have been leveraging its digital 3D CZT technology to image their cardiology and other NM indications, because wanting precise, informative imaging is not limited to theranostics.

3D Dynamic SPECT – a higher dimension of understanding

What a difference a dimension makes. StarGuide makes 3D dynamic SPECT and SPECT/CT possible. The power to follow distributions from injection to uptake to clearance, in three dimensions, in real time, is contained in one application for StarGuide. Segmentation, motion correction, and time smooth are automatic. Transitioning from 2D planar scans to 3D dynamic StarGuide scans introduces the precision of absolute quantitation and next level potential for organ/lesion delineation and diagnostic accuracy. This opens up new end-to-end dynamic protocols – renal, liver and cardiac in particular – in your daily practice or for the most advanced research.

Innovative 3D design: performing in ways dual-head systems cannot

There are many reasons for a ringing endorsement of StarGuide’s constellation of 12 slim, body-orbiting CZT Digital Focus Detectors. For the technologists, each of the detectors automatically swivels into position nearest the region of interest. For clinicians, having detectors that are positioned in optimized proximity to the patient’s body contours results in increased volume sensitivity⁵ and SPECT resolution³. This proximity of this proprietary body contouring generates images with impressive detail not easily obtained on dual-head SPECT/CT systems.

Versatile digital 3D CZT imaging

StarGuide’s detectors help guide clinicians by narrowing the field of view for great precision

StarGuide’s ability to adjust the proximity of the detectors to the patient’s body as closely as possible, and from all necessary angles, leads to remarkable image quality, volume sensitivity⁵, as well as spatial and energy resolutions. The high-energy resolution enables clinicians to perform dual isotope examinations. The native 3D design streamlines workflows, in the pursuit of eliminating the need for additional acquisitions, as is often the case with conventional 2D gamma cameras. For theranostics, StarGuide enabled acquiring vertex to mid-thigh ¹⁷⁷Lu post-therapy SPECT/CT bone scans with 4 bed positions at 3-minutes/bed and a total scan time of 12 minutes.¹ Rapid whole-body scanning time like this is an important factor in helping improve patient comfort and enabling the patient to remain still during the entire exam.

Effortless Workflow

Automation and MIM Software make exams easy for everyone

Simple. Fast. Automated. When you have our premier digital 3D SPECT/CT system performing your everyday procedures, you rightly expect it will transform patient management, technologist efficiency, and department efficiency. StarGuide does. So much so, we call the workflows effortless.

Effortless Workflow

Easy from head-to-toe and start to finish

Our Effortless Workflow model is a sophisticated collection of technologies, like auto setup, that streamline time-consuming tasks from pre-scan to post-scan. With today’s staff shortages and patient volume, that is welcome news.

Effortless and fast patient positioning to be exact

Optical Scout automatically creates a personalized topographical 3D map while positioning each patient, ensuring the optimal detector proximity and table centering in every step. Optical Scout produces a fast and safe transition from one imaging to the next. Technologists simply need to choose the protocol and begin the scanning. StarGuide’s detectors are automatically positioned in close proximity to the region of interest for each bed position to achieve the highest possible sensitivity and resolution.

An exceptional patient and user experience

StarGuide makes fast work of setup. Auto centering and auto detector positioning eliminate user interactions and lessen the potential for mistakes, making positioning reproducible regardless of the user experience. They also minimize their movement, which is so critical for those in pain. Built into StarGuide are a number of thoughtful design innovations that have the patient’s comfort and the user’s workload and productivity in mind, like dual-sided touch rulers, quad-sided controls, the carbon-fiber top with a 500 lb. limit and 22.2” lowest height, and many smart solutions.

NM-first or CT-first workflow flexibility

Clinicians have the flexibility to run StarGuide’s CT scan prior to the nuclear medicine scan, rather than performing the NM study first if that better serves their protocol needs. The scout image acquired by CT-first workflows sets a clear understanding of where to target the NM imaging. For protocols that call for StarGuide’s NM-first workflow, CT would either be unnecessary or would only follow for attenuation correction (CTAC). The efficiency of this fully-automated workflow goes a long way to lessening the technologist’s manual labor.

SmartSweep zeros in on the patient

SmartSweep is StarGuide’s intelligent, emissions-based scanning. A scanning table’s location can cause a wider sweeping range than necessary, beyond the patient’s contour. With SmartSweep, the detectors’ sweep range in bone scans is defined by the emissions from the patient, keeping the focus where it should be. This personalized detector motion may increase image quality.

Automate reconstructions with SmartConsole – StarGuide’s remotely-viewable, image processing sub-system

In addition to automating volumetric reconstructions, SmartConsole handles complex hybrid imaging and quantitative protocols, and generates high-quality hybrid images so you can make informed decisions with quantifiable results.

Effortless Workflow

Adaptable MIM Encore™ workflows that flex to your needs

The flexibility of MIM Encore™ allows clinicians to configure the user interface to their specific role, allowing them to focus on the job at hand. Register and visualize multi-modality studies on multiple displays in agile configurations that suit the workflow. Automate each manual step of the department’s process with MIM Assistant™ and standardize processing while reducing errors with guided MIM Workflows™. The structured reporting of MIM Encore™ automatically populates quantitative findings into data-rich reports for referring clinicians.

Related products
Further insights

Dive deeper into SPECT/CT imaging and theranostics

 

SPECT at the speed of PET

 

Fortifying the pathway to hope with theranostics

 

Counting on hybrid SPECT/CT for elevated diagnostic value in radiology

 

Evolving the promise of precision medicine with theranostics

Have a question? We would love to hear from you.

References
  1. Based on Stanford University study, as published in Song, H., Ferri, V., Duan, H. et al. SPECT at the speed of PET: a feasibility study of CZT-based whole-body SPECT/CT in the post ¹⁷⁷Lu-DOTATATE and ¹⁷⁷Lu-PSMA 617 setting. Results may vary since the scan time depends on the clinical task, patient size, anatomical location and sites’ clinical practice. A radiologist should determine the appropriate scan time for the particular clinical task.
  2. Growth projections from Frost & Sullivan. MEDraysintell 2021; Link: U.S. Healthcare Professionals site.
  3. Compared to NM/CT 870 DR and NM/CT 870 CZT. StarGuide SPECT reconstruction with scatter used the system’s factory NEMA NU 1-2018 resolution protocol which uses the same method (BSREM with Clarity 3D) as its clinical bone protocol. NM/CT 870 DR and NM/CT 870 CZT SPECT reconstruction used Evolution for Bone (OSEM). NM/CT 870 DR used LEHR/LEHRS collimators and NM/CT 870 CZT used the WEHR collimator.
  4. Improved volume sensitivity compared to NM/CT 870 DR using LEHR/LEHRS collimator and NM/CT 870 CZT using WEHR collimator.
  5. Statements made by GE HealthCare customers are based on their own opinions and experiences and on results that were achieved in their unique setting. Since there is no typical hospital and many variables exist, such as hospital size, case mix, etc., there can be no guarantee that other customers will achieve the same results.
  6. Clarify DL improves image quality performance measured by Structures Similarity (SSIM), Mean Squared Error (MSE), and Peak Signal-to-Noise Ratio (PSNR), as compared to StarGuide's non-DL bone SPECT factory reconstruction presets, demonstrated using digital phantom simulations with inserted lesions of known size, location, and contrast, for AC and NC images. Because phantom results may not always match those of clinical imaging, the actual IQ improvement will depend on the clinical task, patient size, and clinical practice (e.g. injected dose, scan time).
  7. CNR improved for NC images and remained equivalent for AC images, as compared to StarGuide's non-DL bone SPECT factory reconstruction presets. Demonstrated using digital phantom with inserted lesions of known size, location, and contrast, for AC and NC images. Because phantom results may not always match those of clinical imaging, the actual IQ improvement will depend on the clinical task, patient size, and clinical practice (e.g. injected dose, scan time).

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