Prostate CT scan with 10x better resolution

Here is another article of interest, but “It will likely be two years before testing is complete and the device moves on to human trials”

“LSU Physics professor Guang Jia and medical physics doctoral candidate Joseph Steiner are working to revolutionize prostate cancer screening by developing a device to increase accuracy. If successful, their device will produce more accurate CT scans of the prostate and improve prostate cancer diagnoses.“

“The device involves attaching an intraoral sensor to an inner rectal coil to produce higher image resolution when used in conjunction with a CT scan. The intraoral sensor is used in dental radiography and inner rectal coils are traditionally used in MRIs, Jia said. “That’s the good thing about what we’re trying to do,” Steiner said. “Everything’s already been done, and we’re just mashing everything together.” Traditional prostate CT scans use a surface coil, which has difficulty producing a detailed image of the prostate because of the organ’s small size and central location. An internal sensor will localize the CT radiation and produce a clearer image of the prostate, Jia said. The digital detector has 100 times smaller pixels than a CT scan, producing scans with 10 times higher resolution, Jia said.”

“Outside of screening, Jia and Steiner’s method can be used to target cancer treatments such as brachytherapy treatment. Detailed screening will allow doctors to target the brachytherapy seeds’ injection to ensure correct placement and improved treatment.“

I use dental intraoral sensors everyday. The do provide high resolution images at lower radiation dosages than film. Patients complain all of the time to how uncomfortable the hard plastic intraoral square sensors are on their palate. Interestingly, many dentist find high speed dental x-ray film to be diagnostic value than the digital images. Our adult sensor is rectangular about 1 1/2" long, 1" wide and 3/8" thick with a wire lead coming from one end.

The problem I see is positioning the sensor to image the prostate. It takes our dental and hygiene students a while to learn proper sensor position within the mouth and in easy view. Inside a rectum I see far harder problem to position the sensor for a good 2D image.