Health Imaging & IT - January 2008 - (Page 15)

This vascular study was scanned in seven seconds on Siemens Medical Solutions work-in-progress SOMATOM Definition AS. Fast acquisition makes it possible to focus on the arterial phase of the whole thorax/abdomen from the aortic arch to iliac arteries. Fine peripheral details (e.g. lung) can be recognized in a single breath-hold examination. lieu of MRI to avoid the expense, complexity and acquisition time associated with MRI. “With stroke, physicians constantly battle against the clock to initiate therapy. If time can be shaved from patient imaging, it represents a huge advance in care. Potentially, the entire CT acquisition including the non-contrast, angiography and perfusion maps could take 15 minutes,” notes Rybicki. “This is clinically relevant functional CT,” continues Rybicki. The difference between 320 and 64 slices is that the new paradigm allows radiologists to view an entire organ rather than a sub-volume. “There are multiple new applications, such as the perfusion of tumors that we are just beginning to explore,” concludes Rybicki. Deliveries of the AquilionONE are slated to begin this summer. HealthImaging.com Cardiac scanning and beyond MetroHealth in Cleveland, Ohio, deployed Philips Healthcare Brilliance iCT scanner in October and has scanned hundreds of patients with the 256-slice system. The new system produces superior cardiac images as its speed and coverage freezes the motion of the heart and produces a clear snapshot of the coronary arteries. But its benefits extend beyond cardiac and cardiovascular scanning. “Higher slice [count], higher speed, larger coverage scanner are intended to deliver maximum benefits to cardiovascular and cardiac imaging; however, we’ve seen significant benefits from iCT’s higher resolution and speed in every scan we’ve acquired,” states Pedro Diaz, PhD, vice chair of imaging and informatics. For example, the department turned to iCT to complete a renal stone protocol on an uncooperative patient in tremendous pain. The four-second scan resulted in high-resolution diagnostic images. Radiologists see similar results for everything from trauma scans to routine chest, abdomen and pelvis protocols as well and expect to use the scanner for both routine imaging and emerging applications such as brain perfusion and cardiovascular imaging. Adaptive scanning at a glance Medical University of South Carolina (MUSC) in Charleston, S.C., installed Siemens Medical Solutions Somatom Definition Dual Source (DS) CT scanner in September 2006 and plans to deploy the Somatom Definition AS early this year after evaluating the new scanner for several months. The system is pending FDA clearance. The new system helps answer shifting clinical needs, says U. Joseph Schoepf, MD, associate professor of radiology and medicine. “In the last three years, clinical needs have evolved in a way that makes adding slices and detector rows a lower priority than in the past,” opines Schoepf. Currentgeneration 16-slice scanners, the workhorses of many radiology departments, adeJanuary 2008 | Health Imaging & IT 15 http://HealthImaging.com

Table of Contents Feed for the Digital Edition of Health Imaging & IT - January 2008

Health Imaging & IT Table of Contents On the Web The Enterprise: Is More Better? News Update A Look Inside Next-Generation Multidetector CT Convention Spotlight: RSNA in Review RIS/PACS in the Imaging Center Sweden: A Study in Mammography Excellence The Votes are in: Yea for Speech in U.S. Capital & Beyond Subspecialty Reading Services: Quality Reads, Peace of Mind, 24/7 Enterprise Lung CAD Eases Workflow Advertisers Index Company Index Coming Soon Stat Sheet

Health Imaging & IT - January 2008

For optimal viewing of this digital publication, please enable JavaScript and then refresh the page. If you would like to try to load the digital publication without using Flash Player detection, please click here.