Diagnostic Imaging - Advances in CT Technology
Multi-slice, wide-bore CT scanning has arrived for oncology applications, allowing greater visibility at a higher resolution than was possible before.
Today we are experiencing an explosion in CT technology. Innovative scanners, advanced applications and exciting breakthroughs in clinical procedures are driving an increased use of CT as a primary diagnostic tool for procedures such as colonography, cancer detection and staging, lung analysis, cardiac studies and radiotherapy planning.
GE Medical Systems, a unit of General Electric Company, has been a leader in CT technology for over 25 years, providing clinicians with innovative diagnostic imaging solutions to keep them ahead of the field. Today, GE continues to deliver on its promise of technological excellence, revolutionising CT with the introduction of the LightSpeed" RT and Xtream(tm) Technology.
The LightSpeed RT is the world's first multi-slice, wide-bore oncology CT scanner. With a generous 80cm gantry opening, the LightSpeed RT bore is 10cm larger than other multi-slice scanners. This provides compete flexibility for patient positioning - even for the most demanding oncology needs. The 65cm variable field of view delivers an additional 15cm of visual coverage, allowing clinicians to see a patient's entire anatomy and skin surfaces for precise radiation therapy planning.
Thin multi-slice imaging is the extra bonus you would expect from a company like GE, as well as respiratory gating, providing precise target delineation and delivering higher resolution digitally reconstructed radiographs (DRRs) than ever before.
Workflow Considerations
Clinicians would agree that multi-slice imaging is the future of CT. Thinner slices allow clinicians to view the anatomy in such precise detail it has to be seen to be believed. However, it has its drawbacks; thinner slices are doubling or tripling the volumes of image data - putting extra strain on already stretched workflow processes.
Productivity solutions such as Xtream' Technology aim to solve these issues. Xtream technology from GE is a revolutionary productivity platform that delivers unparalleled workflow in CT exams. At the heart of Xtream is a new CT operator console with software advancements capable of reconstructing and transferring clinical image data at record speed - faster than any other commercially available CT solution.
'Xtream has removed major bottlenecks from our workflow, enabling us to network thousands of CT images in minutes. Network concerns have effectively disappeared,' remarks Geoffery Rubin, MD, Chief of Cardiovascular Imaging, Stanford University Hospital. 'It's comforting to know that all of the images acquired in a critical case will arrive at the workstation quickly and reliably, allowing us to focus on reading the cases and getting important information to our clinical colleagues in a timely manner.'
Xtream delivers six frames per second (fps) reconstruction at full resolution for images on any slice thickness, and 10-16fps transfer rates to Advantage Workstations or PACS. Xtream also offers 250,000-image storage capacity and adds workflow flexibility by offering the ability to run GE's advanced CT applications directly on the operators console. The Xtream platform is field upgradeable and scalable, designed to easily adapt to technology advancements in the future.
Xtream technology has redefined CT workflow speed, much as broadband did for the internet. Xtream dramatically shortens the total CT exam from scanning a patient to reading images for diagnosis, resulting in significantly increased productivity and patient throughput.
Providing the best of both worlds with simultaneous processing and viewing capabilities in real-time, Xtream enables physicians to virtually view slices as they are collected from the patient, which is crucial in life-threatening trauma cases to determine the need for surgery. Xtream reduces the wait time - when every second counts.
As part of GE's CT Continuum, Xtream technology is available on new scanners, and as upgrades to existing HiSpeed QX/I and LightSpeed scanners. With over 3500 LightSpeed Scanners installed worldwide, GE's CT systems are the most widely used scanners in the industry.
